Pretty Little Witches of Hogwarts
by wonderland-bliss
Summary: Alison is alive, there's no A yet, and this is a story of how the famous five of Alison, Aria, Spencer, Hanna and Emily came to be, amidst Harry Potter and his friends. Rated T for later chapters. SEQUEL IS NOW UP!
1. Chapter 1

This story is basically going to be a take on the Pretty Little Liars characters attending Hogwarts, as well as an origin story of the fab five (Alison, Aria, Spencer, Hanna and Emily). They're all 11 years old at the start of the story, and I'll be using elements from both the books and the TV show. For Harry Potter, I'll also be using the books more than the movies. As much as I wish I owned these two amazing worlds, they all belong to Sara Shepard and JK Rowling. Happy reading!

* * *

"Dilaurentis, Alison!"

All the first years froze as a blond, model-like girl with emerald-green eyes, a heart-shaped face, and rosy pink cheeks stepped out from the crowd of first years as though she were strutting down a runway. She held her head high as she took her place on the stool. The Sorting Hat had not been on her head for even one second as it boomed, "SLYTHERIN!"

The table on the far right erupted in cheers, and Alison smiled smugly as she was the next Slytherin of the night to be sorted, after an intimidating-looking girl named Millicent Bullstrode.

As the gorgeous blonde made her way to the Slytherin table, four very different girls – Emily Fields, Spencer Hastings, Hanna Marin, and Aria Montgomery – watched in awe, mesmerized by her silent charm. Spencer even wondered if she was part-veela; she was _that_ beautiful.

"Fields, Emily!"

A tall, tan brunette with doe-like brown eyes nervously walked to the stage. She was still getting used to the fact that she no longer had to be ashamed of being a witch, and the sight of a tattered, old hat talking before her eyes wasn't helping.

"Hmm, yes. Very strong in character, very loyal, always true to who you are. And very protective of your friends, too. GRYFFINDOR!"

The table second from the left erupted in rowdy cheers as Emily Fields joined Lavender Brown and Toby Cavanaugh at the Gryffindor table. But she couldn't help but notice Alison Dilaurentis from the Slytherin table beaming at her and even clapping her hands along with the Gryffindors. Emily smiled shyly in her direction before shaking everyone's hands.

"Finch-Fletchley, Justin!"

"HUFFLEPUFF!"

"Finnegan, Seamus!"

A short, sandy-haired boy (even shorter than Aria) climbed upon the brown stool and sat for what felt like an eternity before the hat placed him in Gryffindor, and a bushy-haired brunette named Hermione Granger also joined Seamus in Gryffindor, taking a place at the table next to Emily.

"Hastings, Spencer!"

A dark-haired girl with her hair up in a half ponytail and the rest cascading in perfect ringlets down her back emerged from the crowd with a steady look on her face, eyeing the Hat down to conceal any apprehension she had felt in the two and a half hour train ride from King's Cross station.

"So," the Hat spoke. "Another Hastings, eh? A very powerful family, indeed. Now where to put you…"

Please_ put me in Slytherin_, Spencer silently prayed. _I don't want my family to disown me!_

"So you want to be in Slytherin, eh?" he responded out loud to her thoughts. "To follow a…family tradition, perhaps? Yes? However, I do believe your wit and brilliant mind would be far better off in…RAVENCLAW!"

Spencer froze. Her…in _Ravenclaw_? She closed her chocolate brown eyes for a moment, trying not to cry.

"Miss Hastings," Professor McGonagall. "Please join your new classmates. Run along, dear."

"There has to be a mistake, Professor," Spencer cried. "My whole family has been in Slytherin for _generations_! My family will disown me if I'm not in Slytherin!"

"The Hat makes no mistakes, dear," she shook her head. "Please. Sit down."

The youngest member of the Hastings family sighed in defeat, but put on what she hoped was a nice enough smile for the Ravenclaws. She looked toward the Slytherin table to see her older sister, Melissa, shaking her head at her. Spencer hung her head in shame.

Neville Longbottom – like Seamus Finnegan – also sat at the stool for a long time, as the Hat couldn't decide whether to put him in Gryffindor or Hufflepuff. His apparently braver qualities won over, however, as he was finally placed in Gryffindor, taking a seat next to Emily. Five or something more people later, a silvery-blond-haired boy named Draco Malfoy with piercing grey eyes walked toward the Sorting Hat with a similar expression Alison had and was also placed in Slytherin within a second of the Hat being on his head. Jenna Marshall, who was after Malfoy, followed him to the Slytherin table.

"Marin, Hanna!"

The chubby blond-haired girl bumbled and tripped on her way to the stool, causing some of the Slytherins to snicker until McGonagall shot them a warning look.

"HUFFLEPUFF!"

The table on the far left cheered as Hanna bounced toward her new classmates, eager for a fresh start from her "Hefty Hanna" days in primary school. She took a seat next to Justin Finch-Fletchley and across Ernie MacMillan and Hannah Abbott, the latter of who was overjoyed at having someone who shared the same first name.

Aria was the last of the quartet to get sorted, and she joined Spencer and an attractive, brown-haired boy with sparkling blue eyes who introduced himself as Noel Kahn in Ravenclaw. Also at the table was a shy, nerdy-looking boy who introduced himself as Lucas Gottesman and a warm, outgoing boy named Terry Boot.

Everyone watched in anticipation as the famous Harry Potter was sorted into Gryffindor

A brunette version of Alison Dilaurentis named Mona Vanderwall took her place at the stool as the Hat placed her in Slytherin along with Alison, Malfoy, and a few others. Mona plopped down next to Alison, giving her a bonecrushing hug, only for Alison to brush her off and give her a dirty look. Mona looked down disappointedly.

The sorting finally ended with Ronald Weasley and Blaise Zabini getting sorted into Gryffindor and Slytherin respectively.

While Headmaster Dumbledore reminded everyone of the school policies, Alison Dilaurentis eyed Aria, Spencer, Emily and Hanna at their respective tables, greatly fascinated by them. They were all so different – Spencer, who was clearly going to be one of the brightest of their year; Aria, who was clearly the artistic and creative type; Hanna, the poor, chubby girl who was such a sweetheart to everyone, despite having insecurity written all over her; and finally Emily, who would clearly go to lengths to protect those she loved. Anyone who took a look at these four girls would never dream of putting them all in the same circle, but to Alison, they were _perfect_.

* * *

Thoughts, anyone?


	2. Chapter 2

Same disclaimers apply!

* * *

Aria sat outside in the quad on the second weekend of the semester with her pad and pencil, as she drew Noel Kahn, who was in the middle of a conversation at the opposite end with Sean Ackard, a Hufflepuff, and a few other people who were chatting away about Quidditch. She groaned frustratedly as Noel kept moving, so she had decided to just focus on his face as opposed to his full-body profile.

She was so engrossed in making every line and shade perfect, that she hadn't noticed Noel waving at her. She blushed and hid behind her pad of paper, hoping he hadn't caught her drawing him for the past half-hour.

"I wish I could draw half as good as _that_. Those are some wicked skills you have."

Aria turned to look up at a blond girl with wavy blond hair and a heart-shaped face smiling down at her with a glint in her eye, none other than Alison Dilaurentis herself – the one everyone talked about and longed to be friends with; the one who made straight girls question their sexuality and others insecure with their looks.

Alison bent down to sit next to Aria and leaned slightly closer to her ear. "Who're you drawing?"

"It's no one," she quickly hunched over, growing conscious of somebody scrutinizing her artwork. Aria was very protective over her art, which was why she never allowed anybody to interrupt her while she was drawing, and why she rarely allowed people to see the finished product.

"Is that _Noel Kahn_?" she asked, a little too loudly for Aria's taste.

"Maybe…" Aria quickly placed her canvas school bag over her masterpiece-in-progress.

"You think he's cute, don't you?" she smiled cheekily and flirtily gazed in Noel's direction.

"Everyone does," Aria shrugged neutrally. But like everyone else in their year, her heart did backflips every time she'd pass him in the Ravenclaw common room or sit in the Great Hall for meals.

"I do, too," the blonde admitted. "But I prefer mine a little older, you know?"

"Sure." Alison was getting a little too personal for her comfort, but it was nice being noticed every once in awhile.

"I'm Alison, by the way."

"I'm Aria," Aria smiled at her, happy that she'd finally made a new friend. Sure, Spencer – her fellow dorm mate – was nice, but she was slightly intimidated by how paranoid she was about her schoolwork and getting top marks; it wasn't even two weeks into the school year, and she already spent the majority of her free time in the library doing assignments that weren't due for another month. Mandy Brocklehurst, one of the other girls, was okay, but was constantly glued to her best friends, Holly and Rebecca, the final two girls in their dormitory, and Aria didn't feel that she quite fit in with them, either.

"You should give that to him," Alison suggested. "I think he'd like it."

"And embarrass myself in front of all of them? No way," the short brunette shook her head vigorously. "Plus, what if he doesn't like it?"

"If he doesn't like it, then he's _crazy_," Alison declared. "Now give it to him, before _I_ do, and tell him that I drew it." She raised her light brown eyebrows with a small smirk.

"Fine," Aria grumbled and got up, unable to bear the idea of someone claiming her art as their own. Her knees wobbled like jelly as she slowly went toward Noel and his group of friends, and she swore she was going to collapse any second.

"Aria!" he greeted her warmly with a one-arm hug. "What brings you over here?"

"I, um, came to give you something," she muttered a little too quietly.

"Sorry?" Noel didn't quite catch what she said.

"This is for you," Aria quickly handed him the drawing of his face that she had completed in the last half hour.

"Really?" he took the page and stared at it, his friends crowding behind him to see what the fuss was.

"That's reallygood, mate," Sean Ackard's eyes widened in awe. "You've got yourself an admirer." He smirked at Aria.

"Yeah," Terry Boot agreed. "You're quite an artist, Aria."

Aria simply smiled in response, a deep pink blush slowly taking over her cheeks.

Noel looked up. "I love it! Thanks," he grabbed her and embraces her in another hug that was warmer than the last.

As Aria melted into Noel's arms, her fellow first years glared at her in envy as they walked by, while others giggled at the sight of Hogwarts' hottest first year associating with the weirdest.

"So are you going to thank me? Was that really so bad?" Alison smiled proudly as her new friend walked back toward her.

"No, I guess not," Aria shook her head. "Thanks."

"Like I said, he's not bad," Alison said thoughtfully, "but the older ones are even _better_."

"Like who?" Aria was curious now. Having gone to an all-girls preparatory school, she never had much exposure to boys her own age or older, not including her dad.

"Come here," Alison grabbed Aria's wrist excitedly, and the two of them ran through a few corridors before Alison pulled Aria behind her.

"See that guy over there?" Alison eyed down a tall, athletic, muscular guy with a fair complexion and dark eyes. His hair was neatly gelled back in a proper fashion as he got cozy with a pretty brunette on his lap. She reminded Aria of Spencer, but with a slightly tanner complexion and sharper features.

"Yeah, what about him?" Aria asked.

"Now _that's _my kind of man," the blonde smirked with a naughty gleam in her eye. She pulled Aria out from their hidden nook in the corridor and dragged her to where the two older Slytherins were snogging on the bench.

"Are you _crazy_? They're clearly boyfriend and girlfriend!" Aria hissed.

"Relax, he's like family. He's my brother Jason's best friend."

Alison's slender arm reached out and tapped the guy lightly on the shoulder. "Hey, Ian," she threw her arms around his neck and embraced him in a prolonged hug, much to the annoyance of the other girl. "Hi, Melissa," she turned to the other brunette girl in a tone that screamed 'condescending' in Aria's brain.

"Alison!" Ian Thomas lit up. "Haven't seen you since July! How're you enjoying Hogwarts? I see you're in Slytherin, too?"

"Of course, I wouldn't have it any other way," she said gleefully. "This is Aria, by the way."

"Oh. Hi." Aria gave them a small wave and continued gazing at the ground.

"Sorry, she's kind of different. She doesn't really like talking to people," Alison mercilessly laughed at her own comment, which left her Ravenclaw friend feeling extremely embarrassed, if not slightly hurt.

Ian took a quick glance at Aria before turning back to Melissa. "It's not a problem. See you around?"

"Of course." With a flip of her hair, Alison led Aria away from the older couple with a triumphant smile on her face.

Aria gazed at her new friend in shock; some friend _she _was, complimenting her one minute and openly insulting her the next. But for some strange reason, she was still drawn to her. Because of Alison, she'd finally gotten the guts to talk to the boy she'd fancied since the Sorting, gotten her artwork acknowledged by people other than her family, and for once in her life, Aria Juliet Montgomery was no longer an outcast.

* * *

So these next few chapters will be Alison forming her group and the other four becoming friends for the first time. I decided to start with Aria here since she's my favorite, and I've found that I can identify with her through my creative side. I will probably do Spencer next, since she's my second favorite and I can relate to her a lot, unless you guys want me to do Hanna or Emily. Hope you liked this chapter! If you like the story so far, please recommend it to your friends! Thanks so much!


	3. Chapter 3

Disclaimer: I own nothing except any original characters in the story.

* * *

"What would I get if I added powdered root of asphodel to an infusion of wormwood?" Professor Snape asked the first years later that morning.

Spencer Hastings immediately shot her hand up in the air. She loved the adrenaline rush that went through her body whenever she knew an answer to a teacher's question, and she wasn't about to let that go to waste.

Another girl she was sure was named Hermione Granger also raised her hand, but unlike Spencer, she was literally shaking from head to toe, as though she would go ballistic if Snape didn't call on her.

"Mr. Potter?" Snape ignored the two girls and turned to the black-haired blue-eyed boy near the back.

Harry looked up from his parchment and quill. "I don't know, sir."

"You don't…know?" Snape raised his eyebrows.

Spencer patiently kept her hand in the air, growing more and more frustrated by the second. It was so painfully obvious that Snape was wasting his time on Harry, who clearly didn't know the answer.

"Tell me then, Mr. Potter," Snape continued, "where would you look if I told you to find me a bezoar?"

Spencer kept her hand up, as she knew the answer to that as well; she had finished reading all of her textbooks from cover to cover and knew them like the back of her hand. Unfortunately, to her dismay, so did Hermione. She groaned as Hermione started letting out squeaks to express her impatience at Snape not calling on her.

Meanwhile, Harry shook his head again.

"Again? Well then, fame isn't _everything_, is it, Mr. Potter?"

Now Spencer started to _hate _Snape. First he didn't call on people who actually knew the answer and chose to waste his time on people who didn't, and next he called out an innocent student for being the sole survivor against You-Know-Who's Killing Curse.

"For your information, Potter," Snape began before he was suddenly cut off.

"With all due respect," Alison Dilaurentis raised her hand from the middle row, "I believe Spencer Hastings knows. You should ask her instead of Potter."

Spencer gasped and turned to stare at her, along with the rest of the class. Nobody dared talk against a teacher like that, especially not Professor Snape; everyone knew that. How could she be so _stupid_? She'd probably just earned herself a week's worth of detention! It didn't seem to faze Alison, who simply curved her pink lips in a small, cunning smile.

At first, Snape glared at her for talking out of turn, but turned to Spencer. "Very well, Ms. Hastings."

Spencer cleared her throat, clasping her hands together on the long table in front of her. "Asphodel and wormwood together form a very powerful sleeping potion called the Draught of Living Death, and bezoar comes from the stomach of a goat, which can save a person from most poisons."

"Couldn't have said it better myself," Snape answered in his usual monotonous tone.

"And, Professor," Alison continued from her spot, "she was waiting to be acknowledged for a full ten minutes. Doesn't she deserve an _award _for her patience?"

"Ten points for Ravenclaw," Snape waved his hand in the air.

Spencer smiled at her accomplishment, earning her a glare from Hermione right next to her.

"And five from Slytherin, Miss Dilaurentis, for speaking out of turn." If Alison was upset at all, she didn't show it, and she winked at Spencer with a warm smile on her face.

After demanding that they all write down what Spencer had answered for the class, Snape put them into pairs to put together a simple potion for curing boils. Much to her dismay, Spencer was placed with Hermione.

"Clever trick you pulled there," Hermione said stiffly as Spencer consulted the directions in their potion book.

"I didn't ask for that," Spencer answered truthfully in an equally stiff voice.

"At least I can volunteer on my _own _accord," the bushy-haired girl stuck her nose in the air and proceeded to weight the dry nettles while Spencer crushed the snake fangs.

"Excuse me," Spencer glared at the Gryffindor girl. "I know this book backwards and forwards, along with every other textbook of mine, so don't you _dare_ accuse me of not volunteering on my own."

"Two can play at that game," challenged Hermione. "Have you added the slugs yet?"

"We can't do that without the proper amount of nettles," Spencer's nostrils flared in anger, looking over at the nettles still sitting on the scale. _If this girl is in any more of my classes, my head is going to blow up_, she groaned silently.

Hermione grumbled as she finished weighing the nettles.

"Is she picking on you?" Alison poked her head in between the two of them. She turned to Hermione. "Back off, _frizzhead_, or I will personally make sure those teeth of yours are so large that you can never talk again."

Spencer pursed her lips together in silence as finished the rest of the potion, since Hermione was ready to cry and unable to concentrate.

"Right on, mate," Ron Weasley chuckled from behind Alison. "Alison, right?" She turned to glare at him.

"What?" he threw his hands up in the air innocently. "At least you don't have to deal with her every day!"

Alison gave him an amused toothless smile. With a flip of her long blonde hair, she checked on the rest of her potion.

"Disappointing," Snape shook his head as he inspected their potions. Spencer stood eagerly next to her potion, waiting for the verdict.

"Miss Hastings, you seem to be the only one in here who followed directions," his tall figure stood over the small girl. "I suppose another ten points for Ravenclaw are in order."

"But sir," Hermione looked up. "I worked on it, too. Don't I get some sort of credit?"

"From what I saw, Miss Granger, you hardly did any of it," scoffed Snape. "Five points from Gryffindor."

"But…"

"Shall I make it another five?"

She merely shook her head.

"Class dismissed."

"Hey," Spencer ran after Alison Dilaurentis after class. "Thanks for doing that for me."

Alison smiled. "You deserved it, Spence. I don't know about you, but that Granger girl is _really _getting on my nerves."

"I've only had one class with her, and I can't stand her already," the brunette agreed.

"And she made you do everything! She really shouldn't get away with that."

"Well you kind of insulted her," Spencer pointed out.

"Only because she was giving you a hard time," Alison insisted.

"Thank you so much for putting her in her place," Harry approached the two girls, followed closely by Ron.

"She's a nightmare, honestly!" Ron complained. "You deserve a round of applause for getting her to shut up already."

"It's no problem, boys. It's what I do," the blonde bombshell-to-be gave them another hairflip that left them speechless.

Spencer giggled as the two left the Potions dungeon linked arm in arm. As much as Alison's blatant rudeness and clear disregard for respect didn't sit too well with her, she was quite flattered that somebody had stood up for her and made her feel, well, _important_. Mr. and Mrs. Hastings were always all about Melissa, the Prefect and top of her year with straight O's since her first year, bragging to everyone who would listen about the "star" of their family while completely overlooking Spencer. But with Alison, Spencer felt for the first time that she didn't have to worry about that. She felt _free_.

* * *

I'm going on vacation this weekend, so the next chapter won't be up till Monday or Tuesday, but probably Tuesday since I have a test to study for. As for who I'm covering in the next chapter, I still have some kinks to work out, so I'm going to leave it as a surprise for you all. Anywho, just a few notes on the story so far...when I was thinking of a storyline for Spencer, I thought about how interesting it would be if Hermione and Spencer were placed in the same classroom, hence their newfound rivalry. I know I portrayed Hermione as kind of a bitch here, but that's how she struck me when I first read Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone. Harry and Ron didn't really her that much, and were actually kind of annoyed by her, until they saved her from that mountain troll. On another note, somebody asked me if I could possibly introduce Caleb early on, and I'm answering this now because I'm sure others will be asking too. I love Caleb as a character, but I'm not sure that introducing him early on would fit too well into this story, since this is mostly a story that explores the four girls' friendship with Alison, with Harry Potter twists here and there. And like I told that person, if I do introduce him, I'd like to do it right and not in a way that'll just leave him hanging there for the majority of the story. Thank you to everyone that's reading and reviewing!


	4. Chapter 4

So I got this up right on the dot, Monday! Happy reading. Same disclaimers as always!

* * *

_Dear Hanna,_

_ We're so happy to hear that your first week went well! Hannah, Susan, Ernie, and Justin sound like very nice, good-hearted kids; they sound like they'd be great friends! I'm so happy to hear about Hufflepuff (your father was hoping you'd get sorted into Gryffindor, although we would've still loved you no matter what house you got sorted into, we promise!). I hope you love it as much as I did! Say hello to Helga Hufflepuff for me!_

_ Your father insists I put this next part in, but we can't stress enough how important to__be yourself, no matter what others say. There will always be people that try to put you down; don't think that just because you're at Hogwarts now you're safe from that now. It's your job to not let them get to you and remember that you're beautiful inside and out. You have the biggest heart of gold that I know. Don't let any bullies take that away from you. And whatever happens at Hogwarts, remember that we're only an owl away. _

_Love always,_

_Mum and Dad_

Hanna Marin smiled as she folded her first letter from her parents neatly and placed it next to her plate at the Hufflepuff table and popped another blueberry muffin in her mouth. It was already her third muffin, but she couldn't help it; the moist cake freckled with freshly picked blueberries was just too hard to resist.

"Oh look everyone," Pansy Parkinson jeered from the Slytherin table, as her sidekicks Jenna Marshall and Mona Vanderwall snickered at her comment. "Hefty Hanna still gets letters from Mummy and Daddy! _How sweet!_"

The rest of the Slytherins pointed and laughed along with her, as Hanna suddenly turned bright red at that awful name that she'd hope to never hear again. Tears filled her baby blue eyes as she placed her arms across her robes in an effort to mask her flabby stomach.

_To think Hefty Hanna was no more after Millard Prep_, she thought sadly, shaking her head about her traumatizing experiences at the Muggle primary school she attended. She hung her head down and closed her eyes as she recalled all those lunches where her classmates would throw food at her and she'd have to constantly eat alone in the bathroom. Mr. and Mrs. Marin had insisted that Hanna attend a Muggle primary school to expose her to the Muggle world to engrain in her that one's blood purity didn't matter and to discourage her against the blood supremacist views of some of the infamous pureblood families, like the Malfoys. While Hanna couldn't care less about who was pureblood, half-blood or Muggle-born, she did learn one thing: wizard or not, the bullies were all the same.

"Do you not have anything better to do than pick on someone reading her mail?" Hannah Abbott glared in the Slytherin girls' directions.

They looked at each other, gave her identical condescending stares, before going back to their food.

"Don't listen to them, Hanna," she turned to her friend kindly.

"How did they know?" Hanna choked through her tears.

"Know what?" Susan Bones asked.

"That awful nickname I used to be called when I was younger by the mean girls at my old school," she whispered.

"I doubt she knew that," Ernie MacMillan chimed in matter-of-factly, "but don't let them get to you. They like to pick on everyone, even a few of their own, like that Bulstrode girl. I've heard she's quite unpleasant herself, but she doesn't deserve that. The more people react to them, the more they do it."

"Besides," Hannah placed a hand on her shoulder. "It's what's on the inside that _really _counts. And we're all here for you, no matter what."

"That's right," Justin Finch-Fletchley, the shiest of their group, spoke for the first time. "We Hufflepuffs _always _look out for each other. _Always_."

"Look," Susan's eyes darted toward the Slytherin table, where Alison Dilaurentis strode toward Pansy and her two minions.

"If you _ever _say anything to that girl again," the blonde Slytherin yelled at them, "I will tell everyone that you still wet your bed and sleep with your stuffed unicorn at night! _Then_ we'll see who's laughing."

But it was too late. Alison's voice was so loud, that everyone had stopped eating to focus their attention on Pansy Parkinson, and now _everyone _knew.

"You…you promised!" tears formed in Pansy's eyes. "You promised you wouldn't tell _anyone_!"

"I never promised anything," Alison shrugged. "I chose not to tell. But it's too late now."

"You'll pay for this one day, Dilaurentis!" Pansy screamed at Alison through her tears. "I swear on my mother's grave you'll pay!"

"That's the spirit," Alison gave them her infamous smirk.

"Well," Ernie raised his eyebrows and turned back around to face his housemates. "I never thought I'd say this, but she's not as bad as I thought."

"So Hanna," Alison approached the Hufflepuffs at their table. "What was it that Pansy was calling you? Hefty Hanna?"

Hanna cringed at the sound of that terrible nickname, but she gave her a small nod, not looking at her.

"What do you want, Alison?" Hannah looked up at her.

"I can get them to stop calling you Hefty Hanna," Alison ignored the other Hannah. "Forever."

Hanna looked up. "Really?" she asked hopefully.

"I don't like the sound of this," Ernie stood up to face the Slytherin girl. "She doesn't need your help, Dilaurentis. Leave her _alone_."

"Let her speak for herself," Alison pushed him back into his seat. "What do you say?"

"Don't listen to her," Hannah warned. "She's just trying to use you."

Hanna looked from her blonde Hufflepuff friend to Alison, torn between the two of them. She'd dreamed of her Hefty Hanna days being gone since she was five years old, and the idea of Alison putting an end to those days wasn't a terrible idea. But she'd finally found a group of people that looked past the shape of her body and loved her for who she was on the inside and almost stopped caring that she weighed well above the average eleven year old.

She finally looked up at Alison. "How exactly would you do that?"

A slow smile formed on her face. "Come with me and I'll show you."

Hanna turned to her housemates. "I'll catch you guys later."

Hannah and Susan shot her warning looks, but she ignored them and followed Alison Dilaurentis out of the Great Hall.

"Where are we going?" she asked curiously. "Your dormitory?"

"As if I'd take you there," scoffed Alison. "Please. _We _are going to the loo."

"But…why? I don't have to go," Hanna was confused.

"You will soon," she assured her, a scheming glint in her eye. "Trust me."

Alison led her into an abandoned bathroom on the second floor corridor that hadn't been used for at least fifty years. "I'm about to let you in on a little secret of mine, Hanna. But first you have to swear on your life _never_ to tell anyone."

"I promise," Hanna answered shakily, feeling slightly uneasy about what was to come, even if she didn't know what was going on yet.

"Good," the Slytherin girl took out a toothbrush from inside her robes. "Now here's what you do."

Hanna had no words for what happened next. The sensation of sticking the pointy toothbrush as far back into her throat until she felt like gagging was even more painful than she'd felt with the bullies in the Millard Prep schoolyard. Her blue eyes bulged out of their sockets as she barfed up the three muffins she'd eaten for breakfast, along with the two glasses of pumpkin juice she'd drank with it. It flowed out of her mouth in a orange-brownish mush like a waterfall in three rounds with specks of orange here and there. She clasped her stomach in an attempt to ease the process, but it was no use. With every round, she endured more pain, not just in her stomach, but in her head, too. She grabbed onto the rolls of toilet paper for support, trying not to fall over. She let out a few soft sobs as her blonde hair was now a tangled mess hanging in front of her face.

"You did good, sweetie," Alison smiled proudly. "Now do that one more time."

Hanna gazed up at her in horror. "Are you serious?"

Alison simply crossed her arms and raised her eyebrows, not answering her.

She sighed and took a deep breath and crouched over the toilet once more as she went through two more rounds, puking the chicken pot pies and orange juice she'd eaten for dinner the night before. Hanna squeezed her eyes shut, determined not to cry this time around. Right when she thought she was finished, a mushed-up, liquidy version of the fancy fruit tart she'd eaten for dessert came spurting out of her mouth for a good five seconds. She breathed a sigh of both relief and disgust as she fell backwards against the wall of the stall.

"So?" Alison looked at her new friend expectantly. "How do you feel?"

"Awful," Hanna croaked, grabbing some toilet paper and wiping her mouth from the puke.

Alison gave her a sympathetic smile. "The first time is always the worst. But it gets easier every time. I promise."

"How long will this take?" Hanna asked.

"A few weeks," she shrugged. "But you have to keep it up even when you're not Hefty Hanna anymore."

"Don't call me that!" Hanna screamed.

"Shut up, Hanna," Alison's tone suddenly turned venomous. "Do you want McGonagall to catch us?"

Hanna's shoulder slumped down as she shook her head.

"I didn't think so. Remember, nobody knows about this but us. Understand?"

She gulped and nodded, unable to say anything. Hanna had a sinking feeling in the pit of her stomach that this "secret" wouldn't end well, but the thought of no more Hefty Hanna was enough to appease her, and she pushed her other feelings aside for the time being.

* * *

So this chapter was definitely tough to write because of the emotional depth that goes with it. Sorry for not warning you all about the potentially graphic parts, but hopefully it wasn't too horrible. As you know, she does suffer from bulimia in the books (and it is also referenced in the show). Bulimia is something I haven't experienced, thank goodness, but with that said, I'm not sure if I got it entirely right. If any of you are struggling with it and are comfortable sharing your experiences privately with me, please send me a message so that I can better portray Hanna's storyline. But on a lighter note, there's only one girl left before the group is complete! Not gonna say anything about it, other than that it will definitely be lighter and (hopefully) a little more fun! Reviews and thoughts are very much appreciated. Thank you all so much for the love and support!


	5. Chapter 5

So I didn't get too many reviews for that last chapter. I know one of the concerns I got was whether the girls will bond over Ali's cruelty, and how they were going to mesh as a group in general. All I will say is…patience, young Padawan (yes, I stole that from Star Wars). I have to finish getting everything set up with how Alison befriends Aria, Spencer, Hanna and Emily and set up some plotlines for the rest of the story before I get into their group dynamic! Don't worry, you'll see how that plays out as more chapters come along. As for another person who asked me if Ezra will be in this story, I do have plans for him. Aria and Noel will be involved for some time before Ezra comes in, but he will be in the story, whether it's somewhere in here or in the sequel. Now, here's the final chapter before we get to see some of the girls interacting with each other for the first time! Enjoy! Same disclaimers as always.

* * *

"Welcome, everyone, to your first flying lesson," Madam Hooch, the Quidditch referee and coordinator, greeted the first years. "Please stand to the left of one of these brooms here, or to the right, if you're left-handed. Quickly, now, we haven't all day here!"

"You nervous?" Toby Cavanaugh asked Emily Fields as the Gryffindors and the Slytherins stood next to the ratty old-looking brooms that were lined up neatly in two lines of 12 and 13.

"A little," Emily nodded as her brown eyes marveled at the sight of the brooms. Being the Muggle-born that she was, she had always imagined that people flying on brooms only existed in fairytales. "I've never really liked heights."

"Really? So I guess you've…never been on a broom before?" he asked incredulously.

"Have you?" she answered his question with another question. "Dumbledore said first-years can't have their own brooms."

"My dad passed down his old Cleansweep Five to me," Toby explained, "and taught me when I was nine. It's too bad first-years can't play on their House teams."

"Cleansweep Five?" Emily was confused.

"Enough chatter!" Madam Hooch called over all the noise. "Now, everyone stick your wand arm over the broom and say, 'UP!'"

"Up!" Emily commanded, and to her surprise, the broom swiftly made its way to her right hand.

"Whoa," she whispered as she watched everyone else struggle to call their brooms. Meanwhile, however, Emily caught Alison Dilaurentis smiling in her direction while she waited for everyone to have brooms in their hands. The blonde gave a small wave of her hand as Emily shyly looked down at her broomstick.

"You alright?" Toby asked.

"Mhmm," Emily nodded as she stole a quick glance back in Alison's direction.

"Anyway, it's a type of broom," he clarified for her as Emily snapped out of her thoughts. "Up!" His broom also flew into his hand. "You're really new to this, aren't you?"

"My parents are Muggles," she nodded. "It took a lot of convincing on Dumbledore's part to assure them it wasn't a disease."

"I know the feeling," Toby agreed. "That's why my mom left my dad. She couldn't accept that he was a Wizard and was convinced he was crazy."

"I'm sorry to hear that."

"Now," Madam Hooch caught everyone's attention again. "We won't do any real flying yet, but it is important that you all do_ exactly as I say_. Are we clear?"

"Yes, Madam Hooch," everyone chorused.

"Good," she nodded with satisfaction, sticking the broom between her legs. "Now, everyone mount your broom, like so. Wand arm on top, please, and give it a nice, firm grip so that you're not sliding off the end."

Once everyone had complied, she continued, "Next, you will kick off from the ground hard enough to hover for a moment. Now, nobody do anything until I blow my whistle. Three…two…"

Everyone started screaming and pointing as Neville Longbottom was too nervous to wait for her final whistle that he'd taken off a split second too soon. Madam Hooch could no longer control the crowd of thirty or so eleven-year-olds running after Neville, whichever direction his broom took him.

"Oh my god, what do we do?" Lavender Brown panicked.

"Everybody stay calm and stand back," Madam Hooch commanded. She looked up to the sky. "Neville, get back down here _at once_!"

"Aaaaahhhhhh!" he screamed as his broom spun toward the brick walls of the castle, bouncing off a few times before knocking him to the ground, where he landed on his wrist.

The flying teacher sighed and whipped out her wand. As Neville was only about four feet off the ground, she pointed her wand at his broom. "_Immobulus_."

The broom froze midair as Neville fell off with a thud.

"Everybody, stay calm while I check on your classmate, here. It'll only be a moment."

"Now I'm _really _scared to get in the air," Emily muttered.

"That broom was faulty," Toby insisted. "He shouldn't have spun out of control like that."

"No, he wasn't gripping it hard enough," Alison Dilaurentis stepped in. "I don't feel sorry for him. It's his fault, really. If he'd listened to Madam Hooch none of that would've happened."

"It could've been anything," Toby gave her a hard look, not wanting to fight. "Don't talk about him like that."

"I'm only telling the truth," Alison glared back. "Besides, what do _you _know about brooms anyway?"

"I know plenty. My dad taught me how to fly when I was nine," he answered coolly. "Plus the mechanics."

"Oh yeah?" the blonde raised her eyebrows. "Well I've been stealing my brother's Comet Two Sixty since I was six and taught myself to fly while he was off with his stupid friends."

"Okay, can you guys stop?" Emily stepped between them.

Toby narrowed his eyes at Alison, while she turned to Emily with a smile. "Of course, Em. Anything for you. Is it okay if I call you Em?"

"Yeah, sure," the brunette nodded.

"Want me to teach you how to fly?" Alison asked with a cheeky smile.

"Um, Madam Hooch said to stay here," she said uncertainly.

"Please, like anybody's listening. Look at Potter and Malfoy over there, they're not listening," Alison rolled her eyes toward the two boys yelling at each other while flying in the air, with Harry flying toward something Malfoy had thrown in the air. "Neither are they." She gestured to the others, whose eyes were now concentrated on the two boys in the air.

"Look," Toby pointed in the air as Harry had caught the Remembrall. "The kid's a natural."

"That was nothing," the blonde shrugged him off. "I can fly circles around him any day."

"I'm gonna go back inside before McGonagall catches us," the tall, dark-haired boy gave Emily a small wave before leaving the two girls alone.

"Ugh, I thought that freak would _never_ leave," Alison sighed.

"He is not a freak," Emily said. "Don't call him that."

"Look at you, standing up for your friends," she simply smiled. "I think you just might be my favorite. Now are we gonna fly, or what?"

The two girls hid behind a stone pillar as the rest of their classmates headed back to the main castle for the rest of the afternoon.

"The coast is clear. Let's go."

"Where?" Emily was confused.

"To the Quidditch pitch, of course!" she giggled. "Now get on!"

"Um, I'm not sure, I've never flown bef-AHH!"

Emily jumped with a start as she kicked off the ground as hard as she could, and soon she was soaring through the Hogwarts skies, with her long dark hair flowing behind her. As she gained momentum and height, she stared below her, shaken at how high off the ground she was.

"Don't look down _yet_!" Alison laughed a little as she pulled up beside her. "That's how you get scared."

"Yet?"

"What I'm about to show you," they stopped in the air for a few moments as Alison leaned in toward her, "is something I only show to people that are worth it."

Emily followed Alison toward the Quidditch pitch, trying to keep up as they spiraled around the bleacher towers until they were about twenty feet above the commentators' block.

"Now you can look."

Emily gasped as she took in a bird's eye view of the entire school grounds and vicinity before her very eyes.

"It's beautiful," she gasped. "How did you discover this?"

"I have my ways," her eyes twinkled. "You're a natural, you know. Maybe even more than Potter."

"You're just saying that," Emily shook her head with a shy smile.

Alison shrugged. "I have my favorites."

They sat for about half an hour longer to watch the sunset before heading back.

"Thanks for showing me that," Emily said as they touched the ground in the same grass field they'd had their flying lesson. "And for teaching me how to fly."

"That was all you, Em," the blonde smiled genuinely. "You should be proud." She leaned in and planted a light kiss on Emily's cheek before heading toward the Slytherin dungeons.

The look on Emily Fields' face at that moment could only be described as that of pure bliss. She could've sworn she got butterflies in the pit of her stomach just moments ago, the kind that her friends back in Muggle school got whenever they saw cute boys in the schoolyard. But that would mean that she liked…_girls_. Emily shook her head. That couldn't be possible…_could_ it?

* * *

So like I promised, this was much lighter than Hanna's chapter. Hoped you liked it!


	6. Chapter 6

So the chapter you all have been waiting for! The girls officially meet for the first time after all meeting Alison on their own individually. Future chapters will also feature the girls getting to know each other, and spending time with Alison, too! Happy reading! Same disclaimers apply.

* * *

The next day, Alison had summoned Aria, Hanna, Spencer and Emily for "homework time" in the library. She would've brought them to the Slytherin common room, but they had a strict "Slytherins only" House rule, and even she wasn't gutsy enough to risk getting caught by Professor Snape. She was eager for her girls to finally meet one another and complete her circle, although she was pretty sure Spencer and Aria already knew each other since they were both in Ravenclaw.

To her surprise, Spencer Hastings was the first to arrive. She should've figured that one, though. Spencer would never pass up an opportunity to study or do homework. Alison couldn't help but snicker as the studious Ravenclaw stacked her textbooks in a neat pile next to a few rolls of parchment, ready to work on her three essays for Potions, Charms, and Herbology.

"You didn't think we actually came here to _study_, did you, Spence?"

"Why else would you want me to meet you here?" Spencer asked, confused and bummed that she wouldn't be able to get a head start on her papers like she had planned.

"Hey, Alison," Aria greeted her blonde friend, but not before noticing Spencer and her stack of books. "Oh, hey Spencer. I didn't know you knew Ali."

"I know _everyone_, Aria," Alison smirked. "Even all those goody-two-shoes Hufflepuffs."

"Hey! I'm not a goody-two-shoes!" Hanna bounced in and sat next to Alison.

"Sure, you're not," Alison rolled her eyes. "Nice of you to join us, Hanna. Have you been keeping up your _routine_?"

"What routine?" Emily was the last to show up as she sat on Alison's other side, inadvertently saving Hanna from potential embarrassment as Aria and Spencer turned toward her with questioning looks.

"Hello, to you too, Em."

"Hi, Ali," Emily smiled breathlessly as she took a look at the other three girls at the table. "Hi, I'm Emily."

"Aria," Aria smiled.

"Hanna," Hanna gave her a small smile before looking down at the table, her face still red as a tomato from Alison's comment.

"I'm Spencer," Spencer shook her hand politely.

"I know," Emily nodded. "I think Hermione hates you."

"Does she?" Spencer laughed a little.

"Because she can't beat you, obviously," Alison gave her a knowing look before turning to Aria. "You've been awfully quiet. How are you and Noel?"

Aria glared at Alison as Spencer looked up from her parchment and quill with wide, excited eyes. She had trusted that Alison would keep her private life, well, _private_.

"I'll take that as a good sign, then?" she raised her eyebrows.

Aria sighed and took a seat next to Spencer.

"Spence," Alison knocked on the table in front of her. "Why are you working on that? Snape's essay isn't due for another two weeks! You're not trying to outshine Melissa, are you?"

At those words, Spencer dropped her quill and stood up. "Could we have a word? In _private_?" she said through clenched teeth.

"Of course," Alison smiled as the two girls stalked off toward a hidden part of the library.

"Should we follow them?" Hanna asked.

"No," Emily jumped to their defense. "We should give them privacy, like they wanted."

"It's none of our business," Aria added.

Meanwhile, in one of the nooks toward the back of the library, Spencer fumed at Alison. "What are you thinking? Bringing up my _family _in front of people I hardly know?"

"You know Aria," Alison pointed out. "And we're all friends now, Spence. Get used to it. Besides, I thought you hate Melissa."

"That's not the point," Spencer shook her head vigorously. "If you ever bring that up again, I'm telling my sister that you've been fancying Ian behind her back."

Alison's eyes widened slightly before she regained composure. "You won this round, Spence, but don't think this is over."

Back at the table, Aria, Emily and Hanna awkwardly waited for the other two girls, not knowing what to say to the others.

"So," Emily broke the silence. "How did you guys meet Ali?"

"You call her Ali?" Hanna asked.

"It's shorter than Alison," Emily shrugged. "And cuter."

"Um," Aria began. "She saw me drawing while I was sitting in the quad the first week of school and said she liked it." She left out the parts about Noel, and also how she had witnessed Ali hitting on an older guy named Ian. "What about you?"

"Flying class," Emily smiled, reminiscing to herself and subtly bringing a hand up to the cheek that Alison had kissed her on.

"And you, Hanna?"

"I…don't want to talk about it," Hanna said quietly.

"Okay," Emily nodded in understanding, though slightly curious as to why she wouldn't share her bonding experience.

"So…Aria, right?"

"Mhmm," the small, dark-haired girl nodded.

"You and Spencer are friends?" Hanna asked, sitting up slightly in an attempt to look a little less heavy.

"Sure, I guess," Aria shrugged. "Her bed is next to mine in the dormitory. We don't talk too much. She's almost always studying or doing homework."

"Of course she is," Ali emerged from one of the bookshelves, sitting back at the table. "If she's going to be the top of our class."

"Are you guys okay?" Aria asked.

"Never better," Ali shook her head. "Just a…misunderstanding. Right, Spencer?"

Spencer nodded silently

"Well, well, well," Pansy Parkinson, followed closely by Jenna Marshall and Mona Vanderwall, sneered, scrutinizing the five girls, particularly Alison. "So these are your…_friends_. Montgomery…do you have nothing better to do than draw in that stupid notebook all the time?"

Aria grumbled under her breath, placing an arm protectively over her canvas bag, where her drawing pad was. She had planned to meet up with Noel back up at the Ravenclaw Tower and exchange artwork; it turned out that he was an avid artist himself. She was slightly hesitant at first to show him her art, but she figured if he was that impressed with her drawing of him, it wouldn't be so bad.

"And Hefty Hanna?" Pansy shook her head in mock pity. "I would've thought better of you, Dilaurentis."

"I could say the same to you, Pansy," Alison responded coolly, not intimidated by her housemates.

Hanna could feel tears slowly building in her eyes at the sound of her dreaded nickname, but she forced herself not to cry this time.

"Leave her alone," Emily stood up next to Alison, lightly placing her hand over Alison's.

"I saw you with Toby yesterday," Jenna turned to Emily.

"So what?"

"Stay awayfrom him. He's mine," Jenna's green eyes narrowed at her.

"I didn't know Toby was your type, Jenna," Alison raised her eyebrows. "Isn't he a little too…close to home?"

"Jenna?" Mona spoke for the first time. "What's she talking about?"

"It's nothing," she hissed before turning back to the blonde. "Why do you care, anyway? You _hate_ him."

"It was just a thought," Alison shrugged with a smirk. "Come on, girls. We're leaving."

"But I just started Snape's essay!" Spencer groaned as she rolled up her parchment and put her books away.

"Give it a rest already," her Slytherin friend shook her head. "See you at dinner?"

Spencer nodded, and she and Aria split from the other three, starting up the long spiral staircase of the Ravenclaw tower.

* * *

So we get our first interaction and real conflict involving all the girls! What can I say? Patience pays off, my darlings!


	7. Chapter 7

Same disclaimers as always! The events in this chapter are all happening simultaneously, and they take place a week after they all met for the first time. Alison won't have any direct interaction with the four girls, but she's still very much present. Enjoy!

* * *

"Hanna, are you alright?" Hannah Abbott knocked on the door of one of the Hufflepuff bathroom stalls. "You've been in there for the past 20 minutes."

"Yeah," Hanna breathed as she puked up the last of the two large heapings of beef casserole she'd had for dinner.

"Are you ill?" the other blonde asked worriedly.

"N-no. The beef casserole just gave me a bad stomachache, that's all."

"You should go to the Hospital Wing," Hannah said thoughtfully. "It could be the flu, you know."

"Hannah, I promise! I'm fine!" Hanna was on the verge of yelling at her friend as she finally got up and flushed the toilet. She grabbed some toilet paper and wiped off the excess puke from the toothbrush Alison had given her and hastily stashed it in her wand pocket before exiting the stall.

"If you say so," Hannah sighed.

"So are we still doing Sprout's Devil's Snare essay?" Hanna asked her fellow blonde friend.

"Hanna, are you sure you're alright?" Hannah decided to try asking her again. "You've been acting really weird ever since you started hanging out with that Alison girl."

"Don't worry about it, I'm fine," Hanna insisted with a smile. "Really, I am."

Hannah gave her a stern look. "I know you're lying to me, though I'm not sure why."

_Alison would be _so_ proud of me_, Hanna thought sarcastically. _Not._

"I'm not," she lied. "I've just had a lot to do."

"If you ever want to talk about it, you know that we're always here to listen," Hannah dismissed her, knowing very well that she was hiding something, but deciding not to push it.

"Thanks."

"There you are," Ernie looked up from his Herbology essay. "We were worried about you."

"You were?"

"Of course," Susan chimed in. "But we're glad you're okay."

Am_ I okay?_ Hanna thought as her friend's words from moments ago burned into her head. She shook her head with a smile and joined her housemates in their homework.

* * *

"These are some stuff I painted with watercolor when I was eight," Noel Kahn took out a Manila folder from his trunk and carefully pulled out two drawings. "This," he placed a drawing of a mountainous landscape with a multicolored sunset on Aria's lap, "is the view from my grandparents' balcony."

"Whoa," Aria's hazel eyes widened in awe. "This is so cool! I love watercolor. I thought I was the only one that did. I got my first watercolor set when I was five."

"This is something I drew over summer a couple weeks before Hogwarts," he handed her a charcoal drawing of an apple, complete with different shades to show the different angles the light would hit it. "I know it's not perfect, but…"

"Are you joking?" Aria raised her eyebrows. "It's great!"

"Yeah, well, Alison certainly didn't think so," he said, his tone changing slightly.

"You know Alison?"

"Who doesn't?" Noel scoffed. "I've known her since we were seven."

"Really? Are you guys friends?" Now Aria was curious.

"I guess," he shrugged. "But only because our mums wanted us to be. They lived across the street from us, and we'd play in their yard while our mums had lunch. She'd act like an angel when our parents were there, but when they'd leave, she'd ridicule me to no end about how I wasn't enough of a wizard, just because I preferred drawing to flying. I like it better now than I did then, though."

"Are your parents Muggles?"

"My dad is," he explained. "He finds our world really fascinating, though."

"No way! So is mine!" she smiled.

"But I wouldn't be friends with Alison if I were you," he advised her, his blue eyes looking up from his drawings.

"Why's that?"

"She's just bad news," he shrugged. "She knows how to use people to get what she wants. She did it to her mum all the time. Her brother Jason, too. She's quite a brat, really."

Aria pursed her lips. "Well…if it weren't for her, that drawing of you would still be hidden away in my notebook."

"Really?" he smiled a little.

"Yeah," she nodded.

"Maybe she's changed, then," Noel shrugged, unconvinced.

"Maybe," Aria agreed, though she secretly hoped Noel was wrong.

* * *

"Hey, Toby?" Emily asked that night in the common room as she and Toby engaged in a game of Wizard's chess. She still couldn't get over how you told the pieces where to go instead of moving them yourself.

"What's up?" he looked up as he moved his black knight.

"Do you know Jenna? From Slytherin?"

He stopped at the sound of Jenna's name, a mixture of fear and anger spreading on his face. "I wish I didn't."

"She said something to me last week," Emily furrowed her brows in thought. "Told me you were…_hers_."

Toby groaned. "Of course she would."

"What's that supposed to mean?" she asked curiously.

"She's my stepsister," he said quietly.

"Oh."

"She's had the biggest crush on me since we met a couple years ago," he went on. "When she gave a toast to our parents at their pre-wedding dinner, all she talked about was me. She's kind of obsessed."

"That's gross," Emily grimaced.

"I agree," he nodded. "So are you and Alison friends?"

Emily looked over to the Slytherin table, where Alison was smiling and laughing with the second-year brunette next to her.

"Yeah," she looked down at the table, trying to hide her blush. "I've never met someone like her before. I don't know how to describe it."

"Do you like her?" he asked.

"Of course I do," Emily cried. "She's my friend." _Best friend_, she added silently.

"I meant as more than just that."

"Oh," her face faltered. "Is that…even possible?"

"Why not?"

"I don't know," she shook her head. "It's just…weird. All my friends back home would gush about how cute some boy is, but I never really felt whatever they were feeling. And I can't help but feel that maybe I _shouldn't_ be feeling this way. It's so…_different_."

"There's nothing wrong with different," Toby said gently. "If it helps at all, my cousin's a lesbian, and she's one of the happiest girls I know. She's been with her girlfriend for three years now."

"Lesbian?" she asked before commanding her rook to E4.

"A girl who's romantically attracted to other girls," he clarified.

"Oh."

"So let's try this again," he smiled. "Do you like Alison?"

"Yeah," Emily nodded, after pondering his words for a moment. "I think I do."

* * *

"_Wingardium LevioSAH._"

Spencer narrowed her eyes as she pointed her wand to her book, attempting to practice her levitating charm in the corridor outside the Ravenclaw tower so that she could master it before everyone else in her class. Ironically, it was one of the spells that her sister Melissa used to struggle with, so if she could get it before Flitwick taught it to them, she would feel all the more proud.

"You're saying it wrong," a bossy voice snapped from behind, and Spencer turned to see her older sister smirking at her with her arms crossed.

"Melissa," she said tightly. "What are you doing all the way up here?"

"I came to see how my baby sister was doing, of course," she answered in a falsely sweet voice.

"No, you didn't," Spencer rolled her eyes.

"Prefect rounds," Melissa simply shrugged. "I volunteered to do the top stories while Ian's doing the bottom. Then I happened to come across you. It's Levi-O-sa, by the way."

Spencer groaned. "I wanted figure it out myself."

"You're too proud, Spencer," she simply shook her head. "It's okay to ask for help sometimes."

"_You're_ one to talk," the younger Hastings crossed her arms and raised her eyebrows.

"So you've made friends with that Dilaurentis girl, I see," Melissa changed the subject.

"Maybe. What's it to you?"

"Tell her to stay away from my boyfriend," she said through gritted teeth.

"I don't know what you're talking about," lied Spencer.

"If I could take away points for every time she flirted with Ian," she growled, "I would have taken away over a hundred by now. That _disgusting_ little bitch." She turned on her heels in a huff. "Talk to you later, _little sister_."

Spencer swallowed. So it _was _true. When she had threatened to spill the beans in the library, she was going off a hunch; she wasn't actually sure if Alison liked Ian, but she had taken a wild guess when she'd bat her eyelashes at him in the corridors.

She composed herself again as she made one last attempt at the levitating charm with a swish and flick of her wand. "_Wingardium Levi_o_sa_."

Slowly but surely, her copy of _The Standard Book of Spells, Grade 1_ rose a good seven feet into the air and hovered as long as she was pointing her wand at it. She may not have mastered it on her own the way she had hoped, but she would still be the first in her class to master it, and that was good enough for her.

* * *

So the main focus of this chapter was to show how Alison was starting to affect each of the four girls' individual lives, some were more direct than others, as you can tell! The four girls will start interacting by the next chapter, though. Hope you enjoyed! Thank you all so much for reading and following. I love and appreciate you all!


	8. Chapter 8

So these next two or three chapters will be kind of how the girls interact with each other as a result of Alison, starting with Aria and Spencer. I decided to start with them since they're in the same House. Enjoy! I don't own Pretty Little Liars or Harry Potter, even though I wish I did!

* * *

Aria moaned as she woke up that Saturday morning to a persistent pecking at the circular window. A brown and white barn owl with a red envelope clipped in its beak flapped its wings impatiently.

"Okay, _okay_, hold on a minute," she mumbled, unhinging the latch from the window as the owl quickly flew in and perched itself on a nook near Spencer Hastings's bed.

"Um…Spencer?" she called, running down the stairs.

"What is it?" she asked impatiently as she buried her nose in her Transfiguration book.

"I think you have mail," she said, gesturing to the girls' dormitory.

"Seriously?" the fair-skinned brunette slammed her book shut on the table and followed Aria back to their dormitory.

"Yeah, your owl kinda woke me up," Aria nodded.

"Oh. Sorry about that. I don't usually get mail this early," Spencer looked down at the petite girl apologetically as they climbed up the spiral staircase to the wooden mahogany door.

"What time is it anyway?"

"Seven-thirty."

"Do you always get up this early?"

"I wake up at six every day," shrugged Spencer. "I always have, since I was little." She balked at the owl that had now dropped the red envelope on the night table next to her and flown off. "This…this can't be."

"What's the matter?" Aria asked curiously. "It's just a red envelope…"

"_Just _a red envelope?" snapped Spencer. "Do you know what this _is_?"

"A…red envelope?" Now Aria was confused. What was so special about a red envelope?

"You've never gotten a Howler before, have you?" Spencer choked back tears. "That owl you just saw…that was my _parents'_ owl. I have a white one named Snowball."

"That's a cute name," Aria smiled, before remembering her mother, Ella, telling her about Howlers when she was younger. It finally clicked in Aria's head as braced herself for the explosion any minute now. "But a Howler? Why? You haven't done anything wrong."

"You don't know _anything _about me," she said angrily. "And don't think just because you're also friends with Ali that that makes _us _friends, too."

Aria looked down to the floor, slightly hurt by her housemate's comment.

The red envelope automatically opened when it sensed Spencer's touch and formed the shape of a mouth, complete with a set of jagged paper teeth and a ribbon tongue.

"_SPENCER JILLIAN HASTINGS!" _A voice that Aria presumed to be Spencer's mom's boomed loud enough to wake up the entire Ravenclaw tower. "YOU ARE A **DISGRACE** TO OUR FAMILY! DO YOU HAVE _ANY_ IDEA WHAT YOU'VE PUT US THROUGH? WE'VE DEALT WITH YOU BEING THE FIRST HASTINGS NOT IN SLYTHERIN, BUT NOW WE HEAR FROM MELISSA THAT YOU'VE BECOME FRIENDS WITH THAT DAMN ALISON DILAURENTIS? WHATEVER THIS PHASE IS YOU'RE GOING THROUGH, SNAP OUT OF IT! YOUR FATHER AND I WILL NOT HAVE YOU RUINING OUR NAME ANY LONGER, OR WE WILL HAVE YOU SENT _STRAIGHT HOME_!"

Spencer buried her head in her arms and burst into tears on her bed. "I'm never going to be good enough for them!" she sobbed. "I'm not _Melissa_, Mum and Dad! Why can't you get that through those thick _heads _of yours?"

Aria knelt down next to her and placed a hand on her back. "Do you want to talk about it?"

Spencer shook her head, before looking up at Aria. "I'm sorry about what I said earlier," she said in a small voice, "about the whole being friends with Alison thing. I was just upset. I didn't mean that. Could we still be friends?"

"Of course," Aria nodded in understanding. "I'm sorry about whatever it is that's going on."

"It's nothing, really," Spencer sat on the floor against her bed, bringing her knees to her chest. "They're just being stupid, that's all. Just because I'm not like my sister."

"Melissa, right?"

"Yes. _Melissa_," Spencer bitterly repeated her older sister's name. "It's always about her. Melissa _this_, Melissa _that_. When I got the Pupil of the Year award last year, I thought they finally noticed me, until she had to bring up how she'd gotten it all six years, and it was about _her _again."

"Do your parents know Alison?" she asked, remembering something Mrs. Hastings had said in the Howler.

"Our families have met, I suppose," she shrugged, "but I didn't really know about Alison until Hogwarts. I met Jason before, though."

"Jason?"

"Ali's brother," Spencer clarified. "He and my sister dated last year, until my dad found out and forbade them from seeing each other ever again."

"That's weird. And Jason never mentioned Ali at all?"

"Not that I remember," she shook her head. "I don't think they got along very well."

"I don't think so, either," agreed Aria, remembering Noel's story about Alison.

"Really?" Spencer raised her eyebrows. "What makes you say that?"

"Nothing," Aria lied quickly. "I was just agreeing with you, that's all."

* * *

"There you are!" Alison smiled, bouncing up to Spencer and Aria as they headed toward the Great Hall. "We've been looking _everywhere_ for you!"

"We?" Aria looked at her confusedly, as Alison was alone.

"Hanna and Em are saving our seats," she quickly clarified.

"For what, breakfast?" Spencer asked, equally confused. "Don't we usually sit with our Houses?"

"Have you been stuck in those books of yours to forget the first match of the year, Spencer?" Alison laughed.

"Oh!" Spencer remembered. "That's right."

"Come on, it starts in five minutes," Alison grabbed them excitedly. "Ian's probably walking onto the field by now! He's the new Quidditch captain. Don't you want to see him, Spence? I know _you've_ already met him." She winked at Aria, subtly reminding them of the day they met.

"You know Ian?" Spencer whirled around.

"No, not really," Aria shook her head. "Alison and I saw him the first day we met and she introduced us. I haven't seen him since."

"Oh. He's my sister's boyfriend."

"Ugh, just meet us over there when you slowpokes decide to hurry up," the blonde rolled her eyes and ran off toward the field, her green and silver scarf trailing behind her.

"How did _you _meet Alison, Aria?" Spencer asked.

"She saw me drawing in the quad and told me she liked what I was drawing," Aria said, leaving out the part about Noel. "Then we saw Ian and your sister snogging in a corridor on our way to dinner."

"Ugh, of course she was," Spencer rolled her eyes. "And you already know how _I _met Ali."

"I do?"

"Remember that one day in Potions, when Snape kept picking on Harry Potter for no apparent reason?" _And got stuck next to that bossy know-it-all Granger, _she silently added.

"Oh. Yeah, now I remember."

"We should get going before Ali gets mad again," Spencer giggled. "I'm sorry again about earlier."

"It's okay. We're friends now, right?"

"Right," Spencer nodded with a smile. "They better have some food there. I don't know about you, but I'm starving."

"Me too," Aria agreed, and they both laughed.

* * *

So when I was thinking about how the girls' initial friendship dynamic as a result of being brought together by Alison, I figured it would be a little awkward at first, so I tried to convey that in this chapter, and will continue to do so with Hanna and Emily (though Aria and/or Spencer might be in it, too). Reviews and thoughts are very much appreciated! Thank you all again for your support!


	9. Chapter 9

As promised, Hanna and Emily interaction! Enjoy! Same disclaimers as always!

* * *

"Where did Alison go?" asked Hanna, looking around behind her and clutching her black and yellow scarf as Alison abruptly left her and Emily in the Quidditch stands.

"I think she said she was going to look for Spencer and Aria," Emily said, looking toward the direction that Ali went.

"Oh." Hanna reached up to grab her yellow beanie that had slowly been slipping off her head. It was an unusually windy day – a day she would've much rather spent indoors next to the warm fire in the Hufflepuff common room, snacking on chocolate frogs and spending time with Hannah, Ernie, Justin, and Susan.

Hanna took a big bite into a giant chocolate chip cookie that she had snuck from the kitchen. One of her favorite things about the Hufflepuff basement was how close it was to the kitchen; she could get food practically whenever she wanted.

"Could I have a piece?" Emily asked timidly.

"Sure." Hanna let Emily break off a piece of the cookie.

"Thanks. My mom made the _best _chocolate chip cookies. I miss her," Emily looked wistfully to the ground.

"Me too," Hanna agreed. "My mom, I mean."

"I know," Emily smiled.

"Except, um, she didn't cook," the chubby blonde added, laughing awkwardly. "My dad did that."

"I see," Emily nodded. "I don't get to see my dad much. He works a lot."

"Oh. I'm sorry."

"So, um, did I ask you how you met Ali yet?"

"Yeah, but I don't think I told you what happened," Hanna said distantly, trying not to remember her first experience throwing up in the abandoned loo.

"Did something bad happen?" she asked curiously.

"I wouldn't say _bad_, but…"

"Hanna," a familiar, commanding voice interrupted their conversation. Alison, Aria and Spencer joined them on the Gryffindors' side of the bleachers as some Gryffindors glared at Alison. "Want to share that cookie with us? That's rather _large _for one person."

Alison looked down expectantly at the other blonde, who hunched over slightly in embarrassment.

"I…guess you can have some," she mumbled.

"Alison!" Spencer stepped forward in Hanna's defense. "What if she hasn't had breakfast!"

"Believe me, she has," Alison assured her in a seemingly sweet tone, similar to that of Melissa. "She's had more than enough, now that you mention it." She proceeded to snatch the cookie from Hanna's hands, breaking it into four parts and giving the smallest piece back to Hanna.

"Here," Aria gave her piece back to Hanna. "I'm not too hungry."

"Same," Spencer followed suit. "You can have mine, too."

Hanna smiled gratefully at them as Alison's nostrils flared disapprovingly.

Emily, uncomfortable with the rising tension among them, reverted their attention to the field. "Ugh, Slytherin scored a goal…now we're only up by 10…"

This successfully distracted Alison, who stood up on the bench, cupped her hands, and yelled, "NICE ONE, IAN!"

"What are you doing?" Spencer whispered. "My sister will _definitely_ find out now. It's hard enough lying for you as it is!"

"And I appreciate it, Spence," Alison smiled. "More than you know." She turned to Aria. "You've been awfully quiet, Aria."

"Quidditch isn't really my thing," she shrugged. "I just came to be with everyone."

"You and Noel," she rolled her eyes with a smile. "He told me the same thing, too, you know."

Hanna and Spencer suddenly focused their attention on Aria. "Noel Kahn?" they said in unison.

"Is he your boyfriend?" Hanna said excitedly. "Hannah and Susan talk about him _all _the time!"

Aria fought to stay composed as she silently cursed Alison for revealing her secret. "He's just a friend." And as far as Aria was concerned, that was the truth. Like most of the girls in their year, she did have a crush on him at the beginning of the year, but after getting to know him better and spending more time with him, she only saw him as just that: a _friend_. As sweet and charming as he was, she just couldn't see him as more than just that.

Although Spencer had only affirmed her friendship with Aria minutes ago, she sensed that there was more to it, and sure enough, Aria added, "But if he were a little older, maybe."

"Am I rubbing off on you _already_, Aria?" Alison gave her a cheeky smile.

"You like older guys?" Emily asked, suddenly feeling bummed that she wouldn't have a chance with her.

"I do," she nodded. "They're just more mature, you know?"

But upon seeing Emily's disappointed face, she leaned in and whispered, "Don't worry Em, you're still my favorite."

This caused a wide grin to spread on Emily's face. The timing was perfect, because apparently Harry Potter had finally regained control of his broom and was now in a mad race with the Slytherin Seeker toward the Snitch.

"Call it, Spence," Alison called over the loud cheers of the Gryffindors.

"I say Potter," Spencer said with utmost confidence. "He clearly flies better."

"Really?" the blonde Slytherin smirked. "Because he _just _fell off again."

Everyone gasped at the sight of the small, first-year standing in the middle of the field, with his Nimbus 2000 next to him.

"What's happening?" Ron Weasley asked worriedly. "Is he alright?"

"I think he's swallowed it!" Neville Longbottom's teeth chattered worriedly.

They all waited in anticipation for what seemed like an eternity when Lee Jordan, the commentator, announced, "He's caught the Snitch! Harry Potter has just received one-hundred and fifty points for Gryffindor. Gryffindor wins!"

Spencer smiled at her correct prediction, flashing Alison a look that said, "I told you so."

"Having fun with your group of freaks, Dilaurentis?" Pansy, Mona, and Jenna walked toward the five girls, all with their arms folded across their chests in a similar manner.

"At least I have better things to do than walk around and call people _freaks_," Alison's face was now inches from Pansy's. "And I'm not the one who sleeps with a unicorn."

"At least _I _don't tell other people's _secrets_," Pansy retorted. "I pity those little _friends _of yours." She turned to face Mona. "And you wanted to be her _friend, _Mona? Please." Pansy turned her pug-like face back to Alison, Aria, Hanna, Spencer, and Emily. "You'll get what's coming to you some day. _All_ of you."

* * *

So because Hanna and Emily have similar personalities (remember Hanna was shy while Alison was still alive), I imagined their first interaction as being a little more awkward than Aria and Spencer's. And Emily is naturally the most curious about how everyone met Ali since she has a secret crush on her! I have already decided I will write a sequel to this story, and there have been hints of possible storylines (that may or may not be introduced later in this current story) sprinkled throughout the story so far, so see if you can spot them! Thank you all for your continued support!


	10. Chapter 10

Okay so you might find a few surprises when you read this chapter, but that was the point. Enjoy! I don't own Harry Potter or Pretty Little Liars, even if I wish I did!

* * *

When she was sure everyone was asleep, Alison quietly kicked off the emerald green bedspread and tiptoed out of the girls' dormitory and down the long, dimly-lit hall until she arrived at the boys' prefect dormitory, which happened to belong to none other than Ian Thomas himself.

She grimaced at the fact that he was taken by Melissa Hastings; she seemed to boss him around to no end. Alison shook her head. He deserved better and they both knew it.

Alison cleared her throat slightly and knocked lightly on his door.

"What the bloody hell," Ian rubbed his eyes and stumbled to his door. It was almost two in the morning; what could someone possibly want at this hour?

"What is it, Professor…?" He muttered before nearly falling back at the sight of the blonde, five-foot-tall first year standing at his door in her lace nightgown and pink robe. "_Alison_?"

"Hi, Ian," she greeted him quietly before stepping inside and closing the door behind her.

"What is it, Ali?" he asked tiredly. "Shouldn't you be in bed? You have classes tomorrow."

"Tomorrow's _Sunday_, you daft bint," she teased with a slight giggle, before adding, "I couldn't sleep."

"You really can't be doing this anymore," he shook his head, sitting next to her on his bed. "I don't know how much longer I can take it."

"My brother will never know," she said mischievously. "Neither would Melissa."

"We can't be doing this anymore, Ali," he shook his head.

"Why not?" she demanded. "You deserve better, and we both know it!"

"Ali, you're _eleven_," he said. "I'm turning sixteen in two months."

"And I'm turning twelve in one," she said simply. "Your point?"

"You're too young," he shook his head. "In a few years, maybe, but certainly not now."

"Do you really expect me to wait that long?" she looked at him incredulously. "Melissa should be with my brother and we both know it! Don't you get it? She's settling for _you _because she can't have Jason!"

"Alison, _stop_," he said firmly. "I've broken the rules enough for you already. If I catch you here one more time, I'm telling both your brother _and _Melissa you've been coming here every night."

She bit her lips in desperation as she furiously crashed her lips against Ian's. For a few moments, Ian kissed her back, but quickly realized what he was doing and shoved her off. But he was too late as Melissa Hastings stood in the doorway, clenching her fists and shaking in anger.

"Melissa," Ian began. "It's not what it looks like. She came on to _me_, okay? And I…"

"And you were enjoying it, Ian," Alison smirked.

"You little bitch," the eldest Hastings sister hissed, narrowing her eyes at Alison. "I always knew you were trouble." She growled and lunged at Alison, who dodged her by a hair.

"Don't you _ever _come near my boyfriend _again_!" she screeched as Ian held her back. "Or I will…"

"You'll what?" Alison challenged. "We both know the reason you're with him."

"Leave," Ian said in a low voice. "Now. Before I give you detention."

"Detention?" she scoffed. "Is that the best you can do?"

"And write you up to Professor Snape," he finished.

Alison gulped. Snape and McGonagall were the only professors that she wouldn't dare cross; they may be heads of opposite houses, but they both knew how to control her and put her in her place. She held back tears as she stormed out of Ian's room, angrily slamming the door shut behind her.

"So this is where you've been going every night," pug-faced Pansy Parkinson sneered as she emerged from the girls' loo.

"How much did you hear?" Alison asked stiffly as her heart dropped at the realization that she hadn't been able to fool _everyone_.

"Only the last part," she replied honestly.

Alison swallowed, before Pansy continued, "Let me guess. You're going to ask me not to tell anyone?"

The blonde girl grimaced. "What's the point? News travels fast anyway."

"Of course. You would know," Pansy retorted sarcastically.

"Why do you care?" Alison asked, sniffling. "Haven't I been horrible enough to you?"

"I didn't appreciate you telling the whole school about my unicorn," the pug-faced girl admitted, "but Slytherins always look out for their own. Even if they don't always get along."

Alison gave her a small smile in return as the two of them quietly tiptoed back toward the girls' dormitory.

"Thanks, by the way," she smiled at the dark-haired girl.

"It's not a problem," she shrugged. "This can be our little secret."

"What?" Alison was confused.

"You know, that the two _Slytherin princesses_," Pansy referred to the nickname everyone else had for the two rivals, "can actually get along."

Alison shrugged. "Just don't call my friends 'freaks' and we'll be well off."

"Deal. But I'd start treating them like actual _friends_ if I were you, Dilaurentis," Pansy warned. "They might not see how you're _really _treating them, but I do." She smirked as the two girls quietly entered the dormitory and went back to bed.

The blond-haired, heart-shaped faced girl curled up on her side and hugged her pillow tightly. _Parkinson's just trying to scare me_, she thought. _But she doesn't scare me. Not one bit. Aria, Hanna, Spencer, and Emily _love _me. _Especially _Emily. Don't they?_

* * *

"Alison, what's wrong?" Aria asked as the five of them sat at the edge of the lake in a spot that gave them a majestic view of the mountains and forest that surrounded the school.

"Nothing," Alison replied vaguely. "I had a late night, that's all."

"Were you crying last night?" Emily asked curiously, noticing the eye bags under Alison's usually vibrant green eyes.

"No," Alison lied.

"Yes, you were," Spencer disagreed. "It's pretty obvious."

"Shut it. You don't know _anything_, Spencer," she snapped. "I had a late night, that's all."

"You said you wanted to talk to us," Hanna reminded her.

"I did," she nodded. "I just wanted to let you know…how dear you are to me. _All of you_." _Especially _you_, Em_, she snuck a glance at Emily, who immediately caught on and glowed in glee. "Don't ever forget that.

"Aw, _Alison_," Aria smiled, giving her a hug, and the other three followed suit as they all embraced in a big group hug.

"I _mean_ it," she said firmly. "Even if I say some things you might not want to hear. I only do it because I care."

* * *

So a lot happened in this chapter...Alison potentially ruined Ian and Melissa's relationship, Pansy found out her secret, and Alison showed her softer side to _all _the girls, and not just Emily! And as for Alison and Pansy's little interaction after the Ian thing, as you can see, they _can _be friendly with one another, but both agree that they're playing appearances! So Slytherin-like, if you ask me! Haha! It may or may not bite one (or both) of them in the back in the future. Hope you enjoyed!


	11. Chapter 11

So we're now in their second year at Hogwarts, and as they get older, more things will unfold, leading up to Alison's untimely death. I've already planned when she will die and set up the sequel, but I'm keeping my lips sealed about that. I'll be uploading two chapters today because they technically should be one but it was a little too long to be just one, so I split it. The next chapter is a direct continuation of this one. Happy reading! Same disclaimers as always (as you can tell, I'm getting really tired of having to write that I don't own Harry Potter or Pretty Little Liars!).

* * *

"I can't believe we're already second years," Emily Fields said in awe to the rest of the group as they all squeezed into a compartment on the Hogwarts Express. "I feel like I just met you yesterday. All of you."

"Time flies when you're in good company. What can I say?" Alison smirked, flipping her long blond hair over her shoulder.

"Isn't your brother starting Hogwarts this year, Aria?" Spencer Hastings turned to the smallest girl in the group.

"Yup," Aria nodded as she mentally prepared herself for her brother's pre-teen angst.

"What house do you think he'll be in?" Spencer asked.

"Honestly, I have no idea," she admitted. "If I were to take a wild guess, maybe Gryffindor."

"We should all bet on it," Alison suggested with a sneaky, one-sided smile. "Five galleons he's in Slytherin."

"But you don't even know him!" protested Aria.

"I favor my own. You should know that by now," the lone Slytherin's eyes twinkled.

"What's he like?" Spencer asked. "If he's anything like you, then I say Ravenclaw."

"We couldn't be more different," Aria answered. "He's obsessed with Quidditch, he likes to fight, and he never shuts up."

"Fifteen galleons he's in Gryffindor," Spencer said firmly.

"I'm not going to bet," Emily said as Alison threw gave her a questioning look. "I think we should just wait and see."

"Well _that's _no fun. Where's that fun Emily I knew who willingly flew a ratty old broom for the first time without a care in the world?" Alison teased.

"Hey, I'm going out for Quidditch this year," Emily laughed. "Who's the boring one now?"

"You're going out for Quidditch, too?" Spencer's eyes lit up excitedly.

"I didn't know you were into Quidditch, Spence," Alison raised her eyebrows in surprise. "Trying to one-up Melissa?"

"Ali!" Spencer glared at her.

"It's true," she shrugged.

"I get enough crap from my parents getting compared to Melissa with everything I do, and I definitely don't need it from you," the pretty brunette fumed. "And I am _not _'one-upping' Melissa. I'm doing this for _myself_."

"Really?" Alison's eyes narrowed. "Then prove it."

"Can we stop fighting, please?" Emily interrupted.

"Yeah," Hanna agreed. "If Spencer says she's not 'one-upping' Melissa, then I believe her. You should, too, Ali."

"Thank you," Spencer smiled at the chubby blonde.

"Finally you say something, Hanna," Alison turned her attention to the other blonde in the group. "You're shaping up quite nicely, aren't you?" She proceeded to scrutinize Hanna's significantly thinner body; her stomach no longer bulged out of her uniform, and she was able to securely fasten her robe as opposed to leaving it open.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Aria looked at both of them confusedly.

"Nothing, Aria," the blonde Slytherin shook her head with a smile. "Don't worry about it."

* * *

Although they rode in the same carriage after getting off the train, the five girls separated to join their Houses once they got to the Great Hall. Hanna cheerfully greeted her Hufflepuff crew, Emily excitedly caught up with Toby at the Gryffindor table, Alison took a seat next to Draco Malfoy (her only Housemate that she was openly friendly with), and Spencer and Aria joined their Ravenclaw classmates.

"Aria!" Noel greeted her. "How was your summer?"

"Hi, Noel," Aria sat next to him while Spencer sat across from them. Now that her brief fascination with Noel was out in the open among the five of them, it didn't bother her as much when he was around. "It was good. How was yours?"

"It was alright," he shrugged. "My mum's been trying to get me to try out for Quidditch just because my brother Jackson plays for the Ravenclaw team. Sean tried to teach me how to play over the summer, but it didn't go so well. Keeping up with the professional teams is enough for me."

"Fair enough."

"So your brother's getting Sorted, I see?"

"Mhmm," Aria nodded. "I kinda hope he's not in Ravenclaw, though."

"Why? He seems cool."

"Well, you don't live with him," she pointed out. "It was a little better over the summer since he didn't get to see me much during the year, but usually he's an annoying little git."

"It's a younger brother thing," Noel assured her as he thought of his own relationship with his older brother before engaging in a heated argument with Terry Boot about whether the Chudley Cannons or Puddlemere United would be the top-seeded team by the end of the season.

* * *

Aria turned her attention to the Sorting just in time to watch her brother get sorted into Gryffindor. She breathed a sigh of relief, no longer worrying about his potential little brother antics had they been sorted into the same house.

"So I didn't know you liked Quidditch," she casually began a conversation with Spencer, deciding that she wanted to get to know her better. Aria considered Spencer to be her only relatively close female friend other than Alison. But if she were to choose, she would wholeheartedly take Spencer over Ali; Spencer was much kinder and easier to get along with, despite her fiercely competitive nature.

"It's not the first thing I tell people," Spencer answered honestly. "Especially not my parents. They want me to follow in my sister's footsteps – top of our class, become a Prefect, and eventually Head Girl – and think it's 'highly inappropriate' for girls to play Quidditch."

"What do they have to say about the girls on the Gryffindor team, then? And Cho Chang?"

"They don't say anything, since we don't talk about it at all," she shrugged. "I hope you believe me, though. I really am doing this for myself. Melissa doesn't like Quidditch, or any sport, really. She only pretends to, for Ian."

"Your sister doesn't sound like a very nice person," Aria commented, getting a worse impression of Spencer's sister with every story she told.

"She can be when she wants something," Spencer admitted. "But most of the time she's downright _nasty_."

"That's too bad. I've always wanted a sister."

"You can have mine," Spencer offered.

"It's okay," Aria shook her head before changing the subject. "Mike's going to be so upset when he finds out he can't play till next year."

"Maybe he can pull a Potter and rescue someone's Remembrall during his first flying lesson and earn a free pass onto the team," joked Spencer as the two girls snickered at her joke


	12. Chapter 12

Same disclaimers as always!

* * *

"Hanna!" the other blonde Hufflepuff stared down in shock, noticing that Hanna's stomach was no longer bulging out of her grey sweater-vest as much as it had the previous year.

"What is it?" Hanna asked, confused.

"I don't mean to be rude, but, um, did you…get thinner?"

She looked down consciously at my stomach, not answering.

"You look good, Hanna," Sean Ackard, having overhead some of their conversation, butted in without thinking, winking at her.

"Bug off, Sean," Hannah glared at the athletic blond boy. She turned to her friend. "Don't take this the wrong way, Hanna, but that's an awful lot of weight to have lost between three months ago and now."

"W-w-what are you saying?" Hanna twirled her braids around her fingers nervously, afraid that she would figure out her secret. Her friend was right; her stomach no longer bulged out of her sweater anymore, but she still had a significant amount of weight that had settled in her thigh and butt area. She figured another month more of purges would do the trick.

"I just hope you're alright, that's all," she simply smiled and scooped a large heaping of mashed potatoes onto her plate. "That Dilaurentis girl hasn't gotten to you, has she?"

"No," Hanna laughed uneasily. "Of course not. She may be my friend, but I like you and Susan more." _At least that last part was the truth_, she thought to herself.

"That's good to know," Susan smiled, joining in on their conversation. "I don't know her personally, but I've heard awful things about Alison Dilaurentis. And I got a terrible feeling in the pit of my stomach that day last year when she first came up to you. I'm not sure why, but I did."

"I wouldn't spend as much time around her, if I were you," Hannah advised her. "Ever since you became friends with her, you haven't been yourself. You always seem upset or worried, and you're always looking behind you to see if she's watching you."

"I've noticed that, too," Ernie Macmillan added, momentarily interrupting their conversation. "You're better off without her, if I might say so myself. I've seen the way she treats others, and it's disgusting. Plus that day she 'stood up for you', she was downright cruel to Parkinson. Pansy might not be the nicest person in the world, but she didn't deserve that."

Hanna gulped. It seemed like everyone around her would somehow bring up the day she met Alison for the first time, and unlike Spencer, Aria, or Emily, it was a day that she would do anything to forget.

"Hanna?" Susan knocked on the table to get her attention.

"You always do that when you're thinking about something," Hannah observed. "Or remembering something you don't want to remember."

"Sorry, I was daydreaming," she muttered quickly before looking at her plate in shame. _What have I become?_

* * *

"How are things with you and Alison?" Toby Cavanagh asked Emily as he helped himself to a few slices of turkey breast and gravy.

"Okay, I suppose," she said. "She's been really sweet to me, but…"

The brown-haired, blue-eyed boy looked up from his plate, waiting for an answer.

"I feel like I didn't know her as well as I thought," she said sadly, picking off a green grape from her plate.

"How so?" he asked, concerned.

"It's just, I'm not sure why she isn't as nice to everyone else as she is to me."

"Why do you say that?" Toby prompted, though he had an idea of what she was about to say.

"I think she favors me, but not in a good way."

"Oh yeah?"

"She…picks on the others," She referred to Aria, Hanna and Spencer as the others as she recalled the times that Alison would somehow make the other girls feel bad about something. "I don't really know what she's talking about half the time, but she picks on them about random things, and it upsets them. It bothers me. But she's never picked on me. She only stops when I try to calm things down. It's not fair."

"You're right, Em. It isn't," Toby started using Alison's nickname for her. "Have you talked to her about it?"

"No," she shook her head. "I'm kind of afraid to."

"Why?"

"I just don't know what she'd say, or if she'd take me seriously," Emily shrugged. "Whenever I stand up for one of the girls, she just laughs kind of brushes off whatever she did."

"How do you feel about that?" he asked, listening intently.

"Awful," Emily admitted. "I can't believe I didn't see it before. But the worst part is, I still want to be her friend."

"I understand," Toby said gently. "I think you should tell her how you feel."

"But what if she just ignores it?"

"Then she's not worth it," he simply answered. "From what you're telling me about her, you deserve better. You're a good friend to everyone, not just to Alison, even when you know her better than you know the others. Alison clearly has her favorites. You happen to be one of them."

* * *

So a quick summary of the last couple of chapters: Aria is dreading Mike's annoying attitude and reckless behavior. I'll let you all know beforehand that although they're only a year apart, she's always felt the need to protect and take care of him, and Mike just kind of brushes it off and gives her the typical "I-don't-need-your-help" attitude, even when he really loves her deep down. And her friendship with Noel can potentially cause more drama. Spencer's main conflict will mainly revolve around her struggling to be her own person, yet still wanting her parents to be proud of her and not compare her to Melissa all the time. Watch out for her and Alison clashing more, too. Meanwhile, Hanna's slowly becoming torn between her friendship with Alison and her friendship with her fellow Hufflepuffs when Hannah and Susan are pointing things out that she doesn't want to hear, and it's starting to hit Emily that Alison might not be the angel that she makes her out to be, and she will be trying to deal with that. As for Alison's conflicts...you'll have to wait for the next chapter! Thank you all so much for your support! You have no idea how happy it makes me when I see a new favorite/follower/review!


	13. Chapter 13

So it took me a little longer than usual to figure out how to approach this chapter, but once I found something I was happy with, I went off of it and was happy with how it turned out. Hopefully you guys will feel the same. Enjoy! Same disclaimers as always!

* * *

"Alison." Pansy cautiously walked up to her fellow housemate as she unpacked the last of her robes and jumpers. "Could I have a word with you?"

The blonde froze slightly at how Pansy called her by her first name for the first time. "So we're on a first name basis now?"

"Yes, well, I was actually hoping we could start over," the dark-haired girl said.

"As in, forget how you called me and my friends freaks all of last year?" Alison whirled around with an icy glare.

"Look, I'm not the one you should be worried about, anyway," continued Pansy.

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"Just because I won't be giving you girls a hard time anymore doesn't mean others won't."

The blonde ringleader of her group stood to her full height, crossing her arms. "Like who? Malfoy? I think he's more interested in picking on those Gryffs, if you ask me."

"No, though I _have_ heard he fancies you," Pansy said bitterly, silently praying that the rumor wasn't true and that one of his stupid cronies Crabbe and Goyle started it as a joke.

"Really?" Alison raised her eyebrows, intrigued. She'd known Malfoy for years; the Malfoys and Dilaurentises were very close, especially their fathers. She wasn't prejudiced against Muggle-borns the way Malfoy was, but if a Muggle-born happened to aggravate her, she wouldn't hesitate to call them a "Mudblood." If Draco had a crush on her, she would have (should've was more like it) noticed by now, shouldn't she?

"Unfortunately."

"Why are you telling me this?"

"Trying to be a friend?" Pansy shrugged. "I don't know. I figured since you can't really go anywhere with that Prefect…"

"I thought we agreed that was a secret." Alison suddenly grew angry.

"The fact we can actually be friends was our secret," she corrected. "You never said anything about that boy toy of yours."

"Who have you told?" Alison threateningly narrowed her eyes at her.

"No one," she smirked. "Just thought I'd mess with you."

"You still haven't told me who I should be worried about," the blonde continued, though she figured her housemate was probably bluffing.

"They're closer than you think," she replied elusively. "See you in Transfiguration tomorrow?"

"Sure." Alison nodded uncertainly before thinking long and hard about Pansy's words. _They're closer than you think_.

* * *

"Alison, can I talk to you?" Emily approached her friend after Transfiguration the next day.

"Of course, Em. How are try-outs coming along? Is something bothering you? Someone, perhaps?" _This isn't like her_, Alison thought. _She's usually so happy to see me_.

"Tryouts aren't for another week," Emily answered. "And, um, I just had a question."

"Go for it," Alison was curious now, if not slightly worried. Something was definitely wrong if Emily wasn't happy.

"We've been fighting a lot lately," Emily began.

"We?" Alison looked at her confused, pretending not to know what she was talking about. "I wasn't aware we were fighting, Em."

"Not us two, in particular, but the others," she swallowed. "I noticed that they get upset whenever you bring something up. Spencer, especially."

"Spencer," Alison scoffed with a smirk. "She's the only one with enough _guts _to say anything about it. Pathetic."

"Ali!" Emily balked. She'd never seen Alison be this…mean…in front of her.

"What?" she laughed a little. "You know it's true."

"But what about Hanna?" the tan girl continued, building up more and more strength the more she talked. "Why does she always look like she's about to cry whenever you talk to her?"

"Oh, Hefty Hanna," she shook her head with a smile.

"What did you call her?" Emily asked, shocked.

"Well, at least she _was_. She's gotten better, don't you think?"

"And I don't have to ask you about Aria. I wouldn't be surprised if she feels betrayed now," she went on, disregarding her statement.

"She'll thank me later," Alison shrugged.

"So where does this leave us?" Emily crossed her arms.

"What do you mean, 'where does this leave us'?" Alison did everything she could not to lose her temper. _Who does Emily think she is?_ She thought angrily. _What happened to that sweet, shy girl I met in flying class?_

"You have something with them," Emily said angrily, tears in her eyes. "You have a…_secret_…with all of them, except for me!"

"Em," Alison moved closer to her, stroking her upper arm. "You know that's not true. I have _everything _with you that they _don't_."

"Well I don't like the way you treat them, either!" she added. "The way you bring up their personal stuff in front of everyone. Don't you see how hurt they get?"

"The truth hurts. What can I say?"

Emily bit her lip. "I never thought I'd have to say this, but I can't be friends with you anymore if you continue to treat them that way." She took a breath before continuing.

"Really?" Rage grew inside Alison Dilaurentis, as well as some tears of her own. "Well guess what? The only reason you _have _friends is because of me. Without me, you're _nothing_. _Nothing_, Em."

"What do you expect me to do, then?" Emily hoped she wasn't causing too much of a scene as her voice got significantly louder. "I'm not being a friend to you if I just stand there and let you treat people like crap! True friends help each other do the right thing! True friends…"

Before Emily could finish, Alison grabbed Emily and dashed behind the nearest pillar before crashing her lips against her friend's, engaging her in a soulful but passionate kiss.

"Ahem," a stern-looking Professor McGonagall peered down at the girls through her spectacles.

Emily quickly broke the kiss when she noticed her Head of House standing over them, glaring in disapproval.

"Get a room next time," she said, not breaking her glare. "I'm _very _disappointed in you two. That was a terrible example you set for the first-years."

"Sorry," Emily looked down at the ground in shame.

"You'd best be going back to your dormitories now," McGonagall continued in a serious tone before disappearing with a flourish of her velvet robes.

Meanwhile, Alison and Emily crouched together for a few moments before Alison leaned in toward Emily for one last word.

"_That_ can be our little secret."

* * *

Whoo! Lots of action here. Mostly from Ali's point of view, but I thought it'd be a good game changer to see her get challenged for once in a way that doesn't involve proving she's right all the time. Snaps to Emily for standing up to Alison _and _getting her first kiss while she was at it! I can tell you now that things will will change for Ali now. Can't say whether they'll be good or bad, but they _will _change. Now I'd like to hear your thoughts: What do you think of Alison's relationship with Pansy? Are they friends? Are they just using each other to achieve their means? Or are they friends that use each other? Was Pansy's warning truly genuine, or just a tactic to get her to let her guard down? Do you think Alison will listen to Emily and change the way she treats Spencer, Hanna and Aria? Why or why not? Just a little food for thought. I'm curious as to what you guys see. Thanks so much for sticking with me through this story! You guys are the reason I've continued it!


	14. Chapter 14

Disclaimers...duh. For this chapter, I was inspired by a follower's idea for Hanna's storyline, so thank you (you know who you are)! Just a heads up, this is the longest chapter I've written so far, but I feel it was necessary. Happy reading!

* * *

"I'll catch you guys later," Hanna quickly waved good-bye to Susan and Hannah before heading off to the abandoned girls' loo for her twice-a-week purging ritual. Alison had encouraged her to do it every day, but after a month, Hanna found herself unable to handle it and reduced it to twice a week. What Alison didn't know wouldn't hurt her, right?

"Where are you going?" Susan asked curiously.

"Library," the slowly thinning blonde gave the first excuse she could think of. "I, um, have to look something up." Hanna Marin was dangerously close to spilling her secret to them, which was why she had to run.

"Hanna?" the other Hannah raised her light brown eyebrows as she watched her fellow Hufflepuff dash out of the dining hall. "To do _research_? Since when did she become Spencer Hastings?"

"They _are _in the same group," the redhead shrugged. "Maybe she's caught onto her habits."

"No," Ernie shook his head firmly. "Absolutely not. Something's been bothering her, whether she'll admit it or not."

"What do you think it is, then?" Hannah turned to him indignantly. "You could _ask _her if she's alright, at the very least."

"Well that's only gotten _you _so far," he pointed out. "You ought to change your tactic."

"How?" Susan asked.

"Right now, for instance," he said, standing up. "I'm going to look for her."

"What?" Hannah's mouth opened in shock. "You can't be serious! It's getting late."

"You're getting nowhere by constantly asking her if she's alright," he said bluntly. "She's clearly not. I'm taking _action_."

He had a hunch where Hanna might have gone; she may spend the majority of her time with that awful Alison Dilaurentis girl or hanging around Susan and Hannah, but it was hard not to notice her abnormally large appetite and abrupt disappearances twice a week.

There were two main reasons she was keeping her purges a secret. Her first one was arguably the most obvious: Alison. She was pretty sure Hannah and Susan wouldn't chastise her for her actions over the past year, but Alison was a different story. Hanna had no clue what Alison's reaction would be if she found out that others knew what she had taught her to do, or that she wasn't doing it daily, like she had instructed. One thing was for sure, though, she definitely _didn't _want to find out.

But her second reason was perhaps her main one: shame. Her mother would be so disappointed in her if she knew what she was doing, and Hanna knew it. Her sole motivation was the idea of no more "Hefty Hanna," and she had no doubt she would succeed within a month if she continued at the rate she was going, but at what cost?

Hanna tied her long blonde hair into a high ponytail, locked the stall, and put up the toilet seat before hunching over.

"I'm sorry, Alison," she sobbed. "I can't do this anymore. After today, I'm _done_."

With a quivering hand, she reached into her robes for her toothbrush to complete her final purge, but as soon as she opened her mouth to stick the toothbrush down her throat, she swore that she heard footsteps.

_That's odd_, she thought. _Nobody's ever in here_. "H-hello?" she called out hesitantly.

The only form of a response came in the form of hissing noises, and…slithering.

Hanna froze from under the bathroom stalls as a giant green snake-like creature erupted from an opening in the stall next to her.

_What in the name of Helga Hufflepuff is _that? Hanna kept her breathing to a minimum as she watched it slither out toward the exit, followed by what appeared to be a young, redheaded girl. It had to be a first year, she figured; there was no way in hell it was Susan, for she was deathly afraid of snakes, and nobody else in their year had red hair. Not to mention she was definitely too small to be a third-year.

Hanna brought her hands to her mouth in horror as she heard some sort of incantation; whatever it meant, it egged on the snake-like creature, for it moved with an urgent, stealth-like grace, nearly as quiet as a mouse. Hanna didn't need to be Spencer to deduce that the little redheaded girl was controlling the gigantic creature, but how the little girl learned to speak the snake's language was beyond her.

She breathed a sigh of relief as she was alone in the bathroom once more, but groaned as she looked down at the bottom half of her uniform, which was drenched by the mess the creature had made from the toilet water. Realizing she was still holding her purging toothbrush, she slammed it into the toilet in disgust, flushing it down. Hanna didn't care if it ended up clogging the toilet, for she had no plans to visit the abandoned girls' loo again.

"Hanna?" she heard a voice calling her name, followed by quick, urgent footsteps.

"Who-who's there?" she answered shakily, closing her eyes. Usually she would've recognized the voice, for Ernie Macmillan's slightly haughty – though caring – tone was hard not to remember, but she was too shaken up to think clearly.

"It's just me, no worries," Ernie assured her, gingerly stepping in whatever dry area he could toward Hanna's stall. He looked around, running a fat hand through his dirty blond hair. "You certainly made a mess in here, didn't you?"

"It wasn't me, I swear," she shook her head vigorously, unlocking the stall. "There was this gigantic…_creature_…that came out of the ground in the next stall over."

"Are you sure you weren't dreaming, Hanna?" he raised his eyebrows curiously.

"I swear, it was real!" she cried. "And I was _terrified_." She leaned back against the walls of the stall before bursting into a year's worth of pent up tears.

Ernie silently cursed at himself for not bringing Hannah or Susan with him in his search. He had absolutely no idea how to comfort a crying a girl simply because he never had to. Growing up as an only child, the only company he really had was his parents, and even they were too busy with their jobs to offer any emotional support.

"There, there," he did the first thing that came to mind and rubbed her back as soothingly as he could. "It's gone now. Nothing will hurt you."

But when she didn't stop crying, he decided to use the opportunity to ask her directly, to see if his hunch was correct. "How long has this been going on?"

She stopped crying temporarily to look up at him. "W-what are you talking about?"

"I think we both know the answer to that," he said firmly, taking her response as a confirmation.

"Did you know?" Hanna sniffled, grabbing a wad of toilet paper and blowing her nose. "This whole time?"

"Not at first," he admitted. "But I noticed a pattern after awhile and put two and two together. Now," Ernie paused to give her a stern look, "I hope you know that this can't be healthy for you. I won't judge you or ask why you did it the first place, though you're free to tell me if you wish, but I do hope you won't continue."

"Today was going to be my last," she whispered quietly. "Do you remember that one day last year, when I first met Ali?"

"Yeah," he nodded. "Those vile Slytherins were calling you names."

"_A_ name," corrected Hanna. "Hefty Hanna. When I left with Alison that day, she took me here, and made me throw up. She said if I did it, I'd be able to get rid of Hefty Hanna forever. The bullies in my old school would call me that, too. I was getting tired of it."

"I know how it feels," he said, understanding. "As you may have noticed, I'm not the fittest lad around; I'm no Potter or Malfoy. I was much worse as a kid, though I'm slowly but surely starting to thin out. But once I learned to be proud of who I was and embrace it, I couldn't care less." Ernie held out a hand to pull his house mate up, which she gratefully accepted.

"Thanks, Ernie," she smiled wistfully through her tears. "You're making me wish I told someone about this sooner. Someone _else _I mean."

"The past is the past," he simply said. "No use dwelling on it. You've got a lot of explaining to do for Susan and Hannah, though. They've been worried sick."

"You could've told them," Hanna shrugged. "I might've been mad at you at first, but I would've thanked you later."

"I didn't have enough proof to back it up. Plus, it wasn't my place," he shook his head.

"Will…will they judge me?"

"I'm pretty sure they won't," he assured her. "But you can expect them to be upset with you for not telling them, obviously."

"I just hope they don't try to confront Alison or anything," Hanna voiced her fear out loud. "It's her bloody fault for giving me the idea."

"She manipulated you, and that is that," he said calmly. "Do us all a favor and don't let her do it again."

"I won't," she promised.

As they were about to leave, the two Hufflepuffs were stopped in their tracks by the sight of Mrs. Norris, Filch's cat, hanging from a torchlight at the loo's entrance, appearing to be paralyzed.

"Is that…" she began.

"It can't be," he shook his head. "Whatever that creature was, it's definitely responsible for this."

"How can you be sure?"

"It's the only logical explanation we have. I mean, it's not every day you see a paralyzed cat hanging from a torch."

As she looked to the left of the cat, Hanna squealed in shock at the writing on the wall, which appeared to be written in fresh blood of some sort.

THE CHAMBER OF SECRETS HAS BEEN OPENED. ENEMIES OF THE HEIR, BEWARE.

"What's _that _supposed to mean?" Hanna wondered, though she wasn't sure if she wanted to know.

"Miss Marin," Professor Snape appeared in the entryway. "Mr. Macmillan. I am here to escort you two to the Headmaster's office."

"What for, Professor?" he asked curiously.

"He will answer any questions you have," Snape replied emotionlessly.

The two blonds exchanged nervous glances before obediently following the head of Slytherin house out of the abandoned loo.

* * *

So, Hanna's turn to get some action now. JK Rowling seemed to describe people's reactions to the attacks more than the actual attacks themselves, so this was a PLL-infused take on what happened before Harry discovers it. I tried to keep it close to the book, but for this story's purpose it might change a bit. I personally loved Hanna's heart-to-heart with Ernie and am glad she was able to open up to him. If you're wondering why she opened up to Ernie and not Susan or Hannah, it's because (like he told Hannah in the chapter) he used a different tactic and didn't straight up ask her if she was alright. He took a big risk in how he went about it, since it would've backfired if he was wrong, but clearly he was successful. After writing this chapter, I've decided that the chemistry was too great between these two to not pair them together in the future. But I am keeping my promise that Caleb will be in the story, either in this story or the sequel, but in a different role. He and Hanna will still meet, but maybe not in the way you expect. Now Hanna's biggest challenge will be to stay strong, especially if Alison finds out she stopped making herself throw up.

But on another note, welcome, new followers! Thank you so much for taking the time to read my story, and thank you to those of you who have been reviewing. I know it takes more effort to review than to simply follow and bookmark it (I'm guilty of that myself), but I really do appreciate it! Thank you all so much again! I love you all!


	15. Chapter 15

So I've been on an updating roll lately, lucky for you guys! Same disclaimers as always. Enjoy!

* * *

"Where's Hanna?" Spencer wondered as she, Emily and Aria walked to the bleachers to meet Alison half an hour before Emily would try out for the Gryffindor team.

"Beats me," Emily looked around. "I don't think she wanted to come, though. Do you think she's mad at us, or something?"

"Why would she be mad?" Aria asked. "We haven't done anything wrong."

"_We_ haven't, but you never know about Alison," Spencer pointed out.

"Good point," the other Ravenclaw agreed.

"I'm going to talk to her after tryouts," Emily decided. "It doesn't feel the same without all five of us."

"Alison or Hanna?" Spencer asked.

"Hanna," she clarified. "I hope everything's okay with her."

_I wouldn't be surprised if it wasn't_, Spencer wanted to say, but kept her mouth shut. Emily was ridiculously loyal to Ali – almost _too _loyal, in her opinion – and there was no way she'd believe anything bad about Alison Dilaurentis.

* * *

"I'm glad you all willingly came so early," Alison smiled as she tapped a space next to her on the Quidditch bleachers wide enough for them to sit. "I have something for Emily and Spencer."

"What about me?" Aria asked, slightly insulted that Alison hadn't bothered to think of her.

"You wouldn't have use for it," the blonde Slytherin replied, "since you don't like flying."

"Oh. Right," she nodded in agreement.

"These are the new Nimbus 2001's!" Spencer gasped. "They're not supposed to come out for at least another two weeks! How did you get these?"

"I have connections," she smirked at her success in bribing Draco Malfoy's father to buy her two Nimbus 2001's. She silently thanked Salazar Slytherin for her father's excellent professional relationship with Mr. Malfoy.

"Lucky you," Emily smiled as she stroked the black handle and neatly combed twigs at the end. "That's so thoughtful of you, Ali! Your timing couldn't have been more perfect."

"Now go show 'em what you're made of," Alison elbowed Emily slightly as she made her way onto the Quidditch field, eagerly clutching her new broom.

But Emily definitely didn't expect to see everyone hunched in a circle around what appeared to be an argument between a younger student and the Gryffindor Quidditch captain, Oliver Wood.

"Look, mate," Wood began. "I love your passion about the sport, and I'd be more than happy to let you if I could, but I don't make the rules. You'll have to take it up with Dumbledore or Madam Hooch…"

"Oh yeah? How did Potter get in his first year, then? Without a try-out, even!" the younger boy argued hotly. "It doesn't have anything to do with the fact that _he's _the Boy who Lived, is it?"

Aria gasped from the bleachers in a mixture of horror and embarrassment as she realized who was arguing with Oliver Wood.

"Isn't that your brother, Aria?" Spencer turned to her roommate.

"I don't know what you're talking about," Aria said through gritted teeth as she did everything she could to remain calm and not yell at her brother right then and there.

"Careful, Aria," Alison giggled slightly. "Don't want him ruining your reputation now, do you?"

"Ali!" she turned to glare at her friend. "Mike may be a lot of things, but at the end of the day, he's _still _my brother."

"That's not true. He still had to pass a test to secure his spot. I wasn't the one who put him on the team," Wood tried to reason with him. "It was McGonagall. If you have a problem with that, take it up with her, though I don't reckon she'd kick off one of the best Seekers in school history because of you, do you?"

"So you've basically sent the message that you can bend the no-first-years-on-the-team rules if someone proves they're a natural?" Mike Montgomery started yelling. "Then Emily Fields should've earned a spot on the team last year, too!"

Emily's face turned a deep shade of red at having been put on the spot as she wondered if Aria's younger brother knew about her first flying experience with Ali when she discovered that she knew how to fly.

"Okay, that's it," Aria shook her head angrily. "I can't take this anymore." She angrily stomped down the steps and ran toward the potential Quidditch players as fast as her short legs could carry her.

"We needed a Seeker," Wood defended Potter, who was starting to hate Mike with every second. "I held a fair trial, but no one else was up to par. It was sheer_ luck_. Look," he took a few breaths to keep from losing his temper, "come back next year. If you're as good as you say, I have no doubt we'll have a spot for you. But for now…"

Before Wood could finish his sentence, Mike balled his right hand into a fist and gave the captain a hard punch to the bridge of his nose.

"Mike!" Aria screeched, finally making it to midfield, but her eyes widened as others yelled "Fight, fight, fight!" around them in a circle.

"Your brother's quite something, Aria," Emily noticed the panting girl running up beside her.

"_That_ he is," she agreed. "I have to get in there to stop him."

"Aria, don't!"

But it was too late. Aria fought her way through the spectators until she got in the middle of Mike and Wood.

"Mike!" she yelled in her best big sister voice. "Cut it out!"

"Stay out of this, Aria!" he snarled before throwing another punch.

"_No_!" She grabbed his wrist midair.

"I'm sorry, but these are closed tryouts," Wood stared down at the Ravenclaw.

"We were just leaving," she eyed him steadily, still holding up his wrist. "Mike, you owe them an apology."

"For what?" he panted. "For standing up for what's _fair_?"

"Not everything is going to be fair, Mike," she said angrily. "Let's go now before you get detention next."

"It's too late from that, I'm afraid," Professor McGonagall stood before them with an exceptionally stern face, followed closely by the three female Gryffindor chasers who had called for her in the middle of the short-lived brawl. "I will take it from here. Wood, please continue your tryouts."

She turned to the Montgomery siblings. "Mr. Montgomery, you have embarrassed Godric Gryffindor for the last time. I've given you several warnings. Fifty House points will be taken for your lack of respect and _appalling _behavior. I will be writing to your parents tonight, and you will receive a month's worth of detention with Mr. Filch."

"Professor," Aria stepped forward. "Is the detention part really necessary? Please. He's looked forward to playing Quidditch here ever since he learned that he could, and he was just really, _really_ upset. He didn't mean any disrespect toward anyone. It won't happen again, I promise."

"I'm sorry, Miss Montgomery," McGonagall shook her head apologetically. "Your brother has had several incidents already, and I've given him a fair share of warnings. But please take your brother back to the dormitories."

"I can't believe you, Mike!" Aria threw her hands in the air. "Really? Fighting over something you have no control over?"

"It's not fair!" he cried. "I meant what I said about Potter! It's not fair that they bent the rules for him. If he wasn't the famous Harry Potter, fat chance they would've allowed him on."

"I'm sure they had their reasons," she tried to calm him down. "You don't know the whole story. But you do owe them a huge apology, Mike."

"I'm probably going to get a Howler from Mum now, aren't I?" he looked at the ground.

"No," she shook her head. "But _please_. For your sake try to behave, okay?"

"Fine," he muttered. "See you later."

* * *

"How's your brother, Aria?" Spencer asked later that night in the Ravenclaw common room, munching on a pumpkin pasty while studying for Herbology.

"He'll be alright," she sighed, plopping down on a leather armchair by a stack of books. "I can't believe we're related sometimes."

"I know the feeling," she agreed, pondering her own relationship with Melissa for a fleeting moment before going back to her book. "Emily made the team."

"That's great," Aria smiled, making a mental note to congratulate her later.

"She gave a phenomenal try-out. Unfortunately she's a reserve for now, so she'll fill in if one of the other Chasers can't play, or if one of them decides not to come back next year. But if you ask me, she's better than their current ones. Except for maybe that girl with a lot of braids in her hair."

"Are you nervous for yours?"

"A bit," she shrugged, "but a Hastings never gives less than their best, so if they don't like me, they can kiss my arse."

* * *

Gotta love Spencer's last line, haha! So Ali makes an appearance again, even though it is a short one, but as Alison says in the show, "Wait for it. Wait for it." Because of the events in the last chapter, Hanna's been avoiding their group for awhile, and now things should get interesting with their friendship with Ali since they're starting to suspect that she isn't the friend that they thought she was, especially with Spencer correctly suspecting Ali as the reason that Hanna has spent less time with them. Emily is still hopelessly in love, but it seems like Alison listened to her a little...for now. I'm gonna give myself a little break since I've been on an updating spree, so expect the next chapter up by Friday or Saturday. Thank you all so much for your support!


	16. Chapter 16

Hello, everyone! I will be gone this whole weekend so I won't be able to update till early next week, so here's a juicy chapter for you all. Enjoy! Same disclaimers apply

* * *

"Potter's the heir of Slytherin!"

"What is he, You-Know-Who's bastard child?"

"Oh shut up, You-Know-Who tried to _kill _him, you idiot!"

Cries of protest broke out among the students – old and young alike – shortly after Harry Potter had finished controlling the snake somehow.

"Oh my gosh," Emily clutched onto Alison's arm in horror as they watched Justin Finch-Fletchley run out of the Great Hall after Professor Snape vanished the black serpent with a wave of his wand. "Is he gonna be okay?"

"Of course he will, Em," she assured her. "He's just scared. He didn't get hurt."

"Did you know that Potter could talk to snakes?" Emily asked worriedly, slightly afraid to go back to the Gryffindor tower.

"No," the blonde girl shook her head. "But we do now."

"Why are you acting like it isn't a big deal?" she cried. "Aren't you scared out of your mind by now? Who knows what he could do?"

Alison laughed. "Did you not see? He _saved _him. If he wanted to hurt him, Finch-Fletchley be going to the Hospital Wing by now. Those nutheads don't know what they're going on about. Speaking of which…"

She eyed her (formerly, she grudgingly admitted) hefty friend for the first time in at least two weeks, but she wasn't alone. Instead, she was with those goody-two-shoes _Hufflepuffs_ running after Justin out of the Great Hall. He was uninjured, but they followed him nonetheless.

"Hey, Em," she tapped her arm, gesturing to the exit. "Did you see that?"

"What?"

"_Hanna_," Alison let out a small malicious giggle. "I saw her with those goody-good Puffs again."

"So?" Emily shrugged.

"Don't you see? She's been avoiding us," Alison was still smirking, but inside, she was extremely furious with her.

"Erm, Ali…"

Ali raised her eyebrows.

"I talked to after tryouts a few days ago," she began.

Alison's nostrils flared slightly. _Did she tell her? _She worried anxiously_. Did she tell her my secret? _Our_ secret?_

"And?" she pressed Emily for more.

"She didn't say much," Emily replied as Alison sighed in relief. "But I could tell something was wrong."

"What could _possibly_ be wrong?" Alison continued in her same steely tone, thought her question was out of fear more than anything.

"I don't know," Emily shrugged, "but I can't help but feel that…maybe you had something to do with it."

_She knows_, Alison breathed heavily, rage boiling inside of her similarly to when Emily first stood up to her. "What makes you say that?" her eyes suddenly narrowed as the dark haired girl struggled to keep a poker face.

"I don't know," she shrugged again. "A…gut feel, I suppose."

"Let's go find out, then, shall we?" Alison offered her arm for Emily to link hers through.

"How would we do that?" Emily hesitated, not liking where this was going.

"How else?" A manipulative glint crossed Ali's eyes as she and Emily headed in the direction Alison had seen Hanna.

* * *

"Damn that Potter," Ernie Macmillan growled as they accompanied Justin back to the Hufflepuff basement. "Who does he think he is? Setting a snake on you?"

"Ernie, I swear, I'm fine!" Justin complained rolling his eyes. "He was getting the snake to move _away_, not toward me!"

"How would you know?" he challenged. "I don't know about you all, but I wouldn't be surprised if Potter's the heir of Slytherin."

"If he were the heir of Slytherin I'd be good as _dead _by now!" Justin protested. "Will you shut it already?"

"Fine," Ernie crossed his arms. "If that's what you think. Hannah?"

"Which one?" the two blondes chorused in unison.

"Either of you, doesn't matter. What do _you _think?"

"I don't know," Hannah Abbott shrugged. "Harry's always seemed so nice. Why would he want to hurt anyone?"

"Yeah," Hanna agreed. "Nobody got hurt. Plus, shouldn't the heir of Slytherin be in _Slytherin_?" She secretly thought back to the pair of shorter legs she'd seen from under the stall when she'd first seen the creature, as well as the flaming red hair that matched it.

"There are other ways," he shook his head, not convinced. "I'm sure of it. In fact…"

"Hanna!"

Hanna froze in her tracks. She knew that voice. She'd been avoiding that voice since that day Ernie found her in the abandoned loo. She slowly turned around to see Alison and Emily briskly making their way toward them.

"Could we help you?" Ernie stepped in front of them all, glaring at the blonde Slytherin.

"I'm here to talk to Hanna," Alison's lips formed their signature pink pout as she turned to the formerly chubby blonde. "Looking good, by the way. I'm proud of you."

"Go away, Ali," Hanna looked up at her, her voice shaking.

"Have you been _avoiding _me?" she narrowed her green eyes at her.

Hanna looked to Ernie for support, but he simply backed up and silently encouraged her to take a stand.

"When I first met you," she began quietly, "I thought you were the answer. When you told me you could make Hefty Hanna go away, I thought you would help me finally feel good about myself, help me feel like I was worth something, something more than just 'Hefty Hanna'." She cleared her throat before continuing in a stronger voice, "But you know what? You've done just the opposite. You have made my life a _nightmare_, and I'm done dealing with it!"

Emily watched uncomfortably as the two blondes confronted each other.

"I'm gonna wait over there," she said before running in the opposite direction as fast as she could.

"Suit yourself," Ali simply shrugged before turning back to the blonde. "Hanna," Alison laughed mirthlessly. "You poor, ungrateful little thing. You're forgetting something. You wouldn't _be _here if it weren't for me, and you know it. If I hadn't _rescued _you, people would still be calling you Hefty Hanna, and nobody would like you. _Nobody_."

"Well you know what?" Hanna's face filled with tears. "I'd rather be called Hefty Hanna again than be friends with you. I had people who accepted me for who I was, and I was a whole lot happier. If I hadn't thrown up for you that one day in the loo, we both know you wouldn't have accepted me."

_That girl_, Alison growled under her breath. _First Emily, and now her. She thinks she can tell me 'no' just like that? Well, she has another thing coming_. "So be it, then," she said in a low, dangerous voice. "From now on, you're not allowed anywhere near me _or _my friends. _If _I catch you anywhere near them, I swear to Salazar I _will _ruin you."

"Go ahead and try," Hanna shrugged, a newfound confidence brimming within the formerly chubby girl. "See if I care."

"What happened to the girl who so _willing _to do anythingto get rid of Hefty Hanna? Hm?" Alison raised her eyebrows.

"She's _gone_," Hanna fiercely replied. "I'm not letting you bring me down anymore, Ali. Those days are _over_."

Alison took one last look at her now former friend before parting ways.

Hanna panted as she watched her new enemy leave her for good.

"I'm proud of you, Hanna," Ernie stepped up beside her and put a hand on her shoulder.

"Me too," Hannah stepped on the other side of her, wrapping her arms around her roommate. "You're a great girl, Hanna. Helga Hufflepuff would be proud."

Hanna smiled. But it wasn't a happy smile. It was a bittersweet one; Alison may have treated her like utter crap, but she had come to like the other girls over the past two years. But she knew if she broke things off with Alison, she'd have to break things off with them, too; it was too painful for her otherwise. She just hoped they wouldn't fall victim to Alison's cruelty the way she had.

* * *

"Alison, what's wrong?" Emily caught up to her as Alison was practically running.

"Nothing, Em," she snapped. "I'm fine."

"What happened?" Emily asked. "Why was Hanna crying?"

"It's nothing," she lied.

"Alison," Emily's eyebrows furrowed in confusion. "There's more to it than that. Something you're not telling me. I might not know her too well, but she wouldn't say that for nothing. What did you do?"

"It's none of your business," Alison said through gritted teeth.

"We can't be friends if you're going to be keeping secrets like this all the time," Emily argued. "Hanna's my friend too, and I want to know what you did."

"She," Alison turned to her in a deranged look that was unlike her usual self, "is _not _your friend. It's either me, or _her_."

"That's not fair," Emily shook her head. "You can't make me choose like that!"

"Choose Hefty Hanna over me and we're _over_," she threatened. "Go ahead and run the way she did!"

"Ali!" Emily blinked her eyes as her worst nightmare came true.

"I thought you cared about me, Em," Tears of both rage and hurt filled Alison's emerald green eyes. "And now you choose _her _over me?"

"It's not like that," Emily shook her head firmly. "I've never had somebody care about me the way you do. But if you don't change, Ali, Hanna won't be the only one to walk out of your life."

* * *

Did any of you clap when Hanna finally stood up to Alison? I know I did! Things should start getting interesting now that the group is divided. And what do you know? Looks like Alison _did _return Emily's feelings after all! Now that Alison's starting to lose people, I wonder if this will be her wake-up call, or if it'll be her undoing. I've got some great things planned out for the next few chapters, so stay tuned! Thank you all so much for your support!


	17. Chapter 17

I'm back! I hope you all are as excited to read this as I was to write it. I may write another chapter since the next one is a direct continuation of this, so happy reading! Disclaimers...duh.

* * *

"Alison! _Alison_!"

Alison – along with Spencer, Aria, and Emily – turned to notice a little brunette girl with glasses and long pigtails panting behind them, flailing her arms in the air.

"You can stop waving your arms around like an idiot now," Alison folded her arms and glared at her while the other three girls gave shy hello's before looking nervously at Alison.

Mona's excited smile turned to a frustrated frown as she put her arms down in embarrassment.

"What do you want, Mona?" spat Alison.

Her face lit up at having been acknowledged by her idol. "So I heard Hanna's not friends with you anymore."

"And that's your business because?" The sole blonde looked at her roommate impatiently.

"Well," she started nervously, "there were always five of you, right? Your group doesn't really look right anymore with just four of you…"

"Just spit it out," Alison rolled her eyes impatiently. "We have Potions soon, you know."

"If Hanna won't be coming back, maybe _I _could hang out with you all," she gazed up longingly at the four of them.

"Mona," Alison seethed, "you have bugged me to no end from the day I met you with your squeaky voice, those ugly square glasses, and annoying wannabe pigtails. How many times do I have to say _no_?"

"Fine," Mona looked down to the floor, tears forming in her eyes. "If that's how it's going to be. But you'll wish you said yes one day, you know. See you in Double Potions, I guess. You too, Emily."

As the brown-haired, half-Asian girl walked off ahead of them, Spencer turned to Alison. "What's wrong with Mona? She can't be all that bad, can she? I mean, sure, she's a little _perky_, but…"

"But she won't be hanging out with us, and that's that," Alison cut her off.

"And what happened with you and Hanna?" the tall, porcelain-skinned girl continued with an argumentative spark in her chocolate brown eyes. "Since when are you guys not friends?"

"_We_," Alison corrected,"are not friends with her anymore. And that goes for all of you."

"Why not?" Aria protested. "She hasn't done anything to us."

"Why be friends with a stuck-up bitch who thinks she's above you, when you have _me_?" sniffed Alison, pointing her nose in the air. "Now if you'll excuse us, Emily and I have double Potions to get to."

* * *

"Do you believe what Alison said?" Aria asked her roommate as they headed off to History of Magic.

"About Hanna? Not at all," Spencer shook her head. "We may not have spent as much time with her as Ali did, but there's more to it than that. Hanna wouldn't avoid us without a good a reason."

"But why would Ali lie to us?" Aria asked again, though that question was more for herself than anyone.

"She always lies to us," Spencer shrugged. "Well, leave out details is more like it. I've just learned to stop asking why because it's like banging your head repeatedly against a brick wall. It doesn't get you anywhere."

"That's too bad," Aria's face fell as Spencer had indirectly confirmed Noel's claims about Alison.

"Why?"

"She helped me make friends in this place," Aria said sadly. "If it weren't for her, I doubt anybody would've wanted to be friends with me."

"That's not true," Spencer shook her head reassuringly. "We would've become friends one way or another, I'm sure of it. Anyone who's not friends with you doesn't know what they're missing."

Aria smiled in thanks. "I miss Hanna, though. She was such a sweet girl who couldn't hurt a fly."

"We have class with the Hufflepuffs today," Spencer said thoughtfully. "Maybe while Professor Binns drones on and on about mundane medieval magic we can talk to Hanna."

"But don't you usually take notes?"

"I can do double-duty," she shrugs. "I'm not a Hastings for nothing, you know."

* * *

Aria scribbled notes on a piece of parchment paper, occasionally copying Noel when Binns went too fast, while Spencer discreetly leaned down and tapped Lucas Gottesman on the shoulder.

"What is it?" he asked impatiently.

"Can you give this to Hanna?" she whispered, handing him a small scrap of parchment.

"Can't it wait till after the lecture? I'm missing some good notes here," he looked in annoyance from his notes back up to Spencer.

"And _I'm_ not?" she raised her eyebrows. Spencer hated using her academic status as means of persuasion, but she had to admit it was useful at times.

"Fine," he sighed and yanked it from his hand before looking down to two Hufflepuff blondes, unsure which to choose. He didn't talk to very many people from his house, save for Anthony Goldstein and Terry Boot. He knew the Hanna that Spencer spoke of was blonde, but the fact of the matter was that both Abbott _and_ Marin were blonde and impossible to tell apart from behind.

_Fifty-fifty chance, I suppose_, he grumbled silently before tapping whom he hoped was the right one. "Sorry, but um, this is for you."

The pigtailed girl looked at him in confusion. "Sorry?"

Lucas's face turned a deep shade of red. _I _knew_ it was the other one! _He silently smacked himself on the head. "Sorry, I guess you're the wrong one. I couldn't tell who was who. It's from her." He jerked his head back slightly toward the youngest Hastings, hoping Hannah got the hint.

Apparently she did, as she simply smiled in understanding. "It's alright. I'm Hannah, with an H at the end. You were look for Hanna with an A."

"Right," he nodded, still overwhelmed at having chosen the wrong one. "Can you give it to her, though? I really have to get back to taking notes."

"Don't we all?" Hannah laughed good-naturedly. "But yes, I will."

"Children!" Binns squeaked from his tall podium. "Pay attention please!"

"Hanna," Hannah Abbott discreetly slipped the scrap of parchment under her notes. "This came from Spencer Hastings."

Hanna looked up anxiously at the intelligent Ravenclaw, who was now fully engrossed in the lecture, before opening it.

_Haven't seen you around lately. Everything ok?_

She pursed her lips, grimacing a little, before dipping her grey and white quill into her ink and responding,

_Yeah, don't worry about it._

Lucas groaned as Hanna now silently requested him to pass it to Spencer, who now focused her attention on the response.

"Any luck?" Aria whispered.

"No," Spencer groaned before writing back,

_Did you and Ali get into a fight?_

That question was both for Hanna and herself. Spencer always thought she was the one who got into fights with Ali, but apparently not.

"Seriously, can't you just talk to her after class?" Lucas looked up at her, annoyed.

"You're smart, I'm sure you'll ace the next midterm like you always do," Spencer assured him. "But thank you for doing this."

"This is the last time, okay?" he groaned before passing it down below to the correct blonde this time.

She sighed as she took the note, crumpling it up a second after reading it.

"What's the matter?" Susan Bones asked.

"It's nothing."

"Keeping secrets like that only got you so far, Hanna," Hannah reminded her. "We can tell something's wrong."

"I'll tell you later," she mumbled before jumping out of her chair to confront Spencer when Binns finally dismissed them.

* * *

"What was that for, Spencer?" Hanna confronted her two former group mates.

"I'm taking that as a yes, then," Spencer replied in a slightly harsh tone before softening slightly. "What happened?"

"I told you, don't worry about it," she answered in a tight-lipped voice. "Don't worry about _me_. Worry about yourselves instead." She turned in a huff, leaving Spencer and Aria stunned.

"Somebody's gotten feisty," Aria commented, watching Hanna walk off with her new group of friends.

"We found out one thing, didn't we?"

"What's that?"

"Ali lied to us," Spencer said triumphantly. "It was all in Hanna's face. Ali did something, and we're going to find out what that is."

* * *

Uh-oh. Drama, drama, drama! Mona got rejected once more by Ali (do we see "A" in the making?), and Ali is covering up the truth behind Hanna's departure from the group! Spencer was rightfully suspicious about Ali's reasoning, so will we see a Spencer-Ali confrontation? And how is Alison going to react to Spencer and Aria's defiance? It's still going to take time and help from her fellow Hufflepuffs for Hanna to fully recover from the damage Ali did to her psyche. Even if she broke off her friendship with Ali, it doesn't mean things are going to be better for her right away! Stay tuned for the next chapter...


	18. Chapter 18

A continuation of the last chapter. Enjoy! Disclaimers...duh.

* * *

"How? Hanna won't talk to us," Aria reminded her.

"She might not, but that doesn't mean her friends won't," Spencer pointed out. "I'm not too familiar with the girls, but Macmillan and I are Potions partners."

"I thought Hermione was your partner?"

"She was, but she requested a partner change," Spencer shrugged. "Macmillan's much more agreeable anyway. All Hermione would do was argue."

She motioned for Aria to follow her into the library and sighed in relief as Ernie was unusually by himself.

"He's usually in here," she explained as she nodded in satisfaction at spotting him reading near her study spot by the stained-glass window.

"Hey, Ernie," Spencer said cheerily, sitting across from him. "Studying for Snape's exam?"

"Hastings," he greeted her with a pleasant tone. "I was, actually. Come to join me?"

"Actually, no," she said apologetically, "but I was hoping you could help us with something."

"This wouldn't have anything to do with Hanna Marin, would it?" he looked up at the two Ravenclaws, reading their minds.

"Were we that obvious?" Aria spoke for the first time.

"A bit," he admitted with a shrug. "You lot were the only other ones she talked to other than Hannah, Susan, Emily Fields and that horrible Dilaurentis girl. Pardon me for saying that, with you being her friends and all, but you have to admit…"

"Yes, Macmillan, we know," Spencer cut him off. "We actually came to ask you about that."

"About what, exactly?"

"Hanna and Ali had some sort of row, and now Hanna won't talk to us," Aria explained. "We tried asking her about it…"

"Ah," he nodded. "That must be why she's so distraught in the Common Room right now."

"She is?" Spencer's face crumbled a little, fearing she had hurt Hanna's feelings.

"Last time I checked, she was wailing in the girls' dormitory. Hannah and Su were having 'girl talk' with her."

"I'm so sorry, we didn't mean to make her feel that way," Spencer shook her head. "We're just concerned, that's all. Ali didn't tell us everything, and _I_ for one think she lied."

"What did she tell you?"

Spencer leaned her head closer and dropped her voice to a whisper. "She called Hanna a stuck-up bitch that thinks she's above us."

Ernie shook his head. "That couldn't be further from the truth."

"Wait, so you know what happened?" her eyes lit up in hope.

"I witnessed it," he replied solemnly.

"This can't be good. What happened?" Aria asked, leaning forward.

"Let's just say that Alison Dilaurentis is one of the cruelest, vilest creatures to _ever _walk the planet," he bluntly replied, a hint of venom in his voice.

"What did she do exactly?" Aria pushed him for more.

"Are you not aware that your dear _Alison_ had been treating her like absolute shit for the past two years?" he raised his eyebrows questioningly.

The shocked looks on the girls' faces told him otherwise.

"Well," Spencer thought back to the comments Alison would make to Hanna during times they would all hang out as a group. "I always thought Alison was just being _Alison_."

"Dilaurentis and Fields approached us shortly after that stupid Dueling Club of Lockhart's, and Dilaurentis accused Hanna of avoiding her," Ernie began. "It got personal in an instant, I even remember the exact words, but you should hear that part from Hanna," he tapped his quill on the study table nervously.

"It must've been some secret she had with Alison," Aria concluded. "We all have different secrets with Ali…well, _had _is more like it though, since most of it came out."

"I suppose that was Hanna's secret with Alison, then," he continued. "I won't say what it was, out of respect for Hanna, but it ate her up big time. When Hanna stood up to her in the end, Alison threatened her not to go near any of you, or she'd be ruined."

Aria's and Spencer's mouths formed perfect O's at his revelation.

"Let me guess, Dilaurentis didn't tell you that part, did she?"

"No," Spencer said angrily. "But I believe it one hundred percent."

"And now she's afraid to talk to us, isn't she?" Aria added.

"It's not that she's afraid, exactly," Ernie explained. "Conflicted is more like it. She can barely explain to Hannah and Susan why she couldn't talk to you two. I really shouldn't be telling you this, but I can tell you genuinely care for her, like I do."

"We do," Spencer assured her. "We believe everything you said." She shook her head in disbelief. "I should've picked up on it sooner! The signs were all there, you know. All the insinuations, the looks Ali would give her…she did that to all of us, to some degree, so I figured it was nothing."

"There's nothing you can do about it now," he said grimly. "What's done is done. She's been in a lot of pain, you know."

"Obviously," Spencer muttered. "Thanks for all your help, Ernie. See you in Potions tomorrow?"

"Absolutely," he nodded.

"I'm sorry about Justin, by the way," she added. Justin Finch-Fletchley had recently been petrified in the same manner Mrs. Norris and Nearly-Headless Nick were.

"Thanks," he gave her a small smile before going back to his studying.

* * *

"What are you doing?" Aria quickened her pace to keep up with Spencer, who was practically running. "What are _we _doing?"

"Confronting that bitch," Spencer said through gritted teeth. "I don't know how we stayed friends with her for so long."

"She wasn't _all _bad, though," the shorter girl justified. "She made us feel special in her own way."

"In her own _twisted _way, you mean," Spencer corrected.

"True." Aria shuddered at the times when Alison would hang her friendship with Noel over her head in front of everyone and indirectly push her to go further with him. "But do you think she'll kick us out the way she kicked Hanna out?"

"The hell if I know, the hell if I care," Spencer said, a determined look on her face. She stopped temporarily in her tracks as she spotted Alison rush around the corner. "Come on!"

The two girls ran after her, with Aria barely keeping up, but not before Alison rushed through a wooden door with the lock clicking shut.

"Shit," Spencer hissed before whipping out her wand. "_Alohomora_."

The door handle shook slightly but didn't budge.

"Of course she'd be smarter than that," she rolled her eyes.

"Here, let me try," Aria took out her wand with a quick swish and flick. "_Diffindo_."

The handle split in two, breaking the lock, and they tiptoed inside as quietly as they could.

Spencer froze as she heard giggling that she presumed came from Ali.

"I know you want to kiss me," Alison's voice was barely above a whisper, but because they were quiet enough they were able to hear everything.

"Still want to confront her now?" Aria whispered.

"No, but we should see who she's with," Spencer whispered back quietly. "We can use it against her if we have to."

"Spence, don't get down to her level," Aria warned. "You're no better than her if you do."

"It's only a last resort," she assured her. "But for now…" They crept forward to see who her companion was.

"Oh my _God_," Spencer knocked over a few wooden desks in shock.

"Spencer?" Aria rushed to her friend's aid before seeing what knocked her over. "…This cannot be happening right now."

* * *

Cliffhanger! Sorry I had to!


	19. Chapter 19

Things are really getting going now! Enjoy! Disclaimers...duh.

* * *

"I can explain!" Mike Montgomery put his hands in the air. "I can explain, guys, I promise!"

"Yeah, you _better _have a good explanation," Aria crossed her arms, glaring at her younger brother.

"What a surprise," Alison turned around, smirking. "You wouldn't have happened to be following me, would you?"

"We'll deal with that later," Spencer looked up with an identical glare to Aria's.

"So?" Aria prodded Mike. "Why were you hooking up with Alison?"

"I didn't know it would be her in here," he explained. "I was disappointed, actually, I was hoping it was Ginny who wrote that note."

"Oh come on," Alison smirked. "You know you were enjoying it."

"What note?" the eldest Montgomery demanded. "And _Ginny Weasley_? You're just asking for Ron to come after you, aren't you? You know how he gets!"

"It's not _my_ fault she's so hot. And I found a note in the common room saying to meet here," he said. "I thought it was from her. Ginny and I have been meeting here in secret to snog for the past week."

"Don't come crying to me if he tries to beat you up, okay?"

"Alison?" Emily came bursting into the room. "I'm so sorry, Wood had to talk to me for a bit after practice, and it took me awhile to find this…." She jumped slightly in shock upon realizing that she wasn't alone.

Spencer and Aria meanwhile came to a realization of their own as they realized that the note Mike found was meant for Emily from Alison. How Alison would get that note into the Gryffindor common room was another mystery, but after putting two and two together, Spencer was the first to say something.

"You!" she screeched at Ali with a glare. "You and Emily? And you didn't bother to tell us? Neither of you?"

"I didn't want any of you to feel like I liked one of you more than the other," she shrugged as Emily joined her on the desk she'd been sitting on.

"It was already obvious that you did," Spencer said through gritted teeth. _This explains everything_, she thought. _Why Emily would never speak ill of Alison, and why Alison never embarrassed her in front of everyone. Ever_.

"What's _he _doing here?" Emily demanded, noticing Mike standing in background.

"I was just giving him a little practice," shrugged Alison. "Nothing, really. He fancies someone else, anyway."

"A little practice?" Emily scoffed. "Right. Because that's perfectly okay when you're _taken_. And you get mad every time you see me talking to Toby? Please."

"Em, you're still my favorite, don't worry," Alison gave her a knowing smile.

"If that's how you're going to be," Emily sniffed. "I guess I'll _practice _somewhere else, then." She angrily stomped out of the abandoned classroom with a slam of the door.

"I'm out," Mike said, putting his hands up again.

Spencer, not done with what she had to say, chased Emily out the door.

"How long has this been going on?" she asked.

"Since last year, kind of," Emily looked down to the floor. "I'm so sorry, I really thought she told you."

"She didn't say a thing," Spencer's eyes narrowed at her. "If she listens to you more than any of us, why did you just stand there all those times she embarrassed us all?"

"You have to believe me, Spencer," she shook her head. "I've tried to get her to stop, and she does for awhile, but then she goes back to it all over again."

"Do you know about what happened with Hanna?" Spencer asked, remembering Ernie's story.

Emily's eyes remained on the floor. "I watched her do it."

"And you didn't do anything?" Spencer was incredulous.

"I couldn't! It was terrible to watch! I left halfway through. I got upset with her after, but then…"

"But then what?" Alison interrupted, followed by Aria. All eyes focused on her before she flashed her infamous smirk. "Go on, Em, finish the story."

"No," she shook her head.

"What was that?" the blonde raised her eyes.

"I said _no_, Alison," she said firmly. "You need to make up your mind about me soon before someone else does."

"You're seeing someone else?" Alison suddenly grew jealous and no longer cared about openly displaying their relationship in front of the other girls now that the secret was out.

"No," Emily shook her head. "But you need to decide if _you_ are."

Alison fumed as she watched her girlfriend (though she wasn't sure if she deserved to call Emily her girlfriend after what just happened) walked off into the corridor.

_I can't lose her_, she thought determinedly. _She's not walking out on me the way stupid Hefty Hanna did. Neither are Spencer and Aria, and I'm doing whatever it takes to make them stay._

* * *

Back at the Slytherin dormitories, Alison raised her eyebrows at the box of dark chocolate, raspberry-filled truffles on her bed.

"Honeyduke's dark chocolate truffles with raspberry filling," she thought out loud with a smile. She furrowed her face in confusion as there was no trace of who sent it, except for a single message:

_Here's to Slytherin's one and only! XOXO_

"Weird," she said with a shrug. "But thanks, I guess."

"Enjoying your chocolate, Dilaurentis?" Pansy Parkinson eyed the box of chocolates in her hand as she walked into their dorm.

"They're my favorite," Alison smiled. "I wonder who gave them to me, though."

"Wasn't me," Pansy shook her head. "I've been out all day. I wouldn't be able to tell you. I didn't even know you liked those."

"I really needed these." The blonde took the first truffle out of the left corner of the box and popped it into her mouth.

"So I heard you aren't friends with the Hufflepuff anymore," Pansy said casually, leaning back on her bed, which was next to Alison's.

"Not you too," Alison groaned at how similar Pansy sounded to Mona that instant.

"I have no interest in your little group, if that's what you're worried about," Pansy assured her.

"Then what is it to you?"

"I'm not shocked, if I were to be honest with you," the dark-haired girl said nonchalantly. "Why do you think you're the closest thing I have to a friend?"

Alison stopped chewing halfway through her second truffle, taken by surprise at her roommate's statement.

"We're not so different, you and I," Pansy continued.

"Why's that?" Now she was interested in what the raven-haired girl had to say.

"There's no such thing as friends for us," Pansy replied. "When people stop giving us what we want, we get rid of them. For you, it's attention. You only love that Gryffindor girl because she's practically worships you, not because you're really attracted to her; she'll do anything for you, and you like that."

_Not entirely false, I suppose_, thought Alison. "Go on."

"When Hanna stopped giving you attention, you couldn't care less when she broke it off with you, and you haven't dumped those Ravenclaws because even though you treat them like absolute crap at times, they've stuck around and still flock to your side when you call for them."

She glared at Pansy, knowing that her words were true. "What about you, then?"

"To be your equal," her dark beady eyes now met Alison's emerald green ones in a challenging gaze.

"Really?" Alison gave her a challenging gaze of her own. "Ever heard of strength in numbers?"

"You've lost one already, Dilaurentis," laughed Parkinson. "What makes you think you won't lose another one? Lose one more and we're even, you know."

* * *

And in usual PLL-fashion, things don't go according to plan! Bet you guys didn't see that one with Mike coming, huh? I could've easily had Ian in there, but I figured that'd be too obvious, and I felt like throwing you all for a loop! Mike better watch his back before Ron finds out. And now that Emily's secret is out, things are really starting to get tense for them all. Spencer, going off her anger at what happened with Hanna, is now angry with Emily for seemingly not standing up for them every time Alison would hang their secrets above their head in front of everyone, even if Emily's telling the truth. Alison's starting to get paranoid about losing people, and Pansy's challenge wasn't helping! When Pansy said that Alison only liked Emily because she practically worshipped her and she loved the attention, she spoke the truth. It just seems different otherwise because Alison didn't want to admit it to herself before that. Unfortunately for Emily, though, her feelings for Alison _are_ real. Thank you all for your support!


	20. Chapter 20

Sorry it took me a little longer than usual! I've been busy getting ready for my sophomore year, that I haven't had as much free time. Plus I've been stressing about registration because the classes have been filling up hella quick! But here's the next chapter for y'all. Happy reading! Same disclaimers apply.

* * *

"Hanna, really, they're worried about you," Hannah Abbott pleaded with her fellow blonde roommate. "_Please_ go talk to them, at least let them know you're okay."

"I can't, Han," she shook her head. "It's…it's too painful."

"Nonsense," Susan shook her head. "They were much better friends to you than Alison ever was. They don't deserve to be pushed away like that."

"Yeah, they've asked Ernie about you and now Aria, the short one, just asked me again after Herbology the other day," Hannah added.

"What did you tell her?"

"That you miss her, of course," the pigtailed girl replied. "You'll have to ask Ernie what he told them – Aria asked him too, but Spencer Hastings was with her that time – though I don't think he told them about your secret."

"Why did you tell them that?" Hanna cried. "You just gave them hope that I'd go back to them!"

"Because it's the truth," the redhead said firmly. "Deny it all you want, but it's rather obvious that you miss them. And by avoiding them just like Alison told you to, you're still letting her get to you. If she's really not your friend anymore, you shouldn't give a damn what she thinks."

Hanna frowned for a bit before nodding. "You're right. I'm no better than I was before if I keep worrying about Alison still."

"That's the way to do it," Hannah Abbott smiled, handing her a third-year class list. "Now let's get on with this, shall we?"

"To a fresh start," affirmed Hanna determinedly.

* * *

"Hello, girls," Melissa Hastings greeted Aria and Spencer with an overly enthusiastic smile over breakfast in the Great Hall. "Signing up for third-year electives, I see?"

"Mhmm," Aria nodded, narrowing her choices down to the Study of Ancient Runes, Care of Magical Creatures, and Divination.

"I'm taking what I want, Melissa," Spencer automatically answered dully, reading her sister's mind. "Besides, shouldn't you be looking after your _own _house?"

"Can't I check on my baby sister every now and then?" laughed the eldest Hastings. "And seeing as Clearwater is still unable to fulfill her duties, I thought I'd step in and help," Melissa continued in a similar sugary tone.

"Okay, what's really going on?" Spencer glared up at her older sister. "You're never this nice to me."

"Dumbledore's announcing Head Boy and Girl for next year in two weeks," she said proudly.

"Of course you would," Spencer rolled her eyes.

"Not that I have much competition to begin with, but it can't hurt, you know?" her smile turned into a smirk eerily similar to Alison's.

"Right," Spencer made a mocking face at her sister's remark, prompting Aria to snicker uncontrollably.

"Laugh all you want," Melissa sneered. "I'm not the one who's number two to someone who's been in the Hospital Wing for the past three months."

Her comment hit a nerve as Spencer's nostrils flared in anger.

"Oh no, she didn't," she hissed.

"Spencer, calm down," Aria placed a hand on her friend's shoulder. "Focus on picking your classes. She's just trying to irritate you."

"I know," she said quietly, "and it gets me every time. If my parents didn't focus so much on her all the time I might not care as much. What are you taking?"

"What do you think?" the smaller girl showed Spencer her choices.

"Good choices," Spencer nodded in approval, "though I think I'll take Arithmancy instead of Divination. And maybe Muggle Studies, too. Hey, maybe you can take that with me."

"Spence," Aria laughed, "my dad's a Muggle, remember?"

"Oh. _Duh,_" Spencer mentally smacked herself for forgetting that detail. "I could probably ask you anything I'd want to know about Muggles, couldn't I?"

"No," Aria was slowly catching on to the youngest Hastings' sarcastic humor, and she noticed, which was why she burst out into a fit of giggles. "Hmm, I wonder if Noel's taking any of these."

"Does somebody have a crush?" Spencer raised her eyebrows with a teasing smile.

"Maybe," Aria said, after some mental debate.

"Oh come on, I'm not _Ali_."

"I know you're not," she agreed. "I've known since the middle of last year. Speaking of her, where has she been?"

"Beats me," Spencer shrugged. "I haven't seen her since we found out about the thing with Emily and her."

"Do you think they're still together?" Aria wondered aloud.

"No," Spencer shook her head.

"What makes you say that?"

Spencer gestured toward the Gryffindor table, where Emily and Dean Thomas were laughing and giving each other flirty gestures.

"At least she isn't letting Alison's drama get to her," Aria commented in admiration.

"At least Alison's enjoying the sight," Spencer's eyes turned to the entrance of the Great Hall, where Alison shook from head to toe as though she were about to explode. "Or not," she added.

"We should distract her before she does the same thing to Emily what she did to Hanna," Aria grabbed Spencer's wrist as they approached Alison at the entrance.

"Hey," Spencer smiled, "haven't seen you in awhile."

"Oh," Alison snapped out of her zone. "Sorry." But her tone indicated that she was anything _but_ sorry.

"Is everything okay?" Aria asked.

"I just needed some time to think," she assured them, though Spencer was sure she was hiding something. She shook her head. "You can't trust anyone these days."

The two brunettes exchanged glances at the irony of their friend's statement.

"Is someone bothering you?" Spencer persisted.

"Promise me you won't leave me, girls," she said, half-frantic and half-crazed.

"What?" Aria couldn't believe her ears.

"Have we ever done anything for you to doubt us?" Spencer got defensive.

"Like I said," she looked them both in the eyes, "you can't trust _anyone_. Now leave."

"Ali?" the shortest of the three looked at her nervously.

"I said _leave_!" she demanded.

"Fine," Spencer gave the Slytherin girl a cold, hard look. "Maybe we _will_."

* * *

Uh-oh. Is there trouble for Ali? Is she getting paranoid? Both, maybe? And will Hanna finally listen to Hannah and Susan and keep her friendship with Aria, Spencer and Emily? Sorry no Emily in this chapter, but about the mention of Emily and Dean Thomas, she _is_ attempting to see other people to get over the that things between Ali and her aren't so good, she becomes confused about her sexuality again and won't have the same empowerment until she comes across someone else she clicks with (similar to the books and show; hint, hint). And Melissa strikes again, indirectly reminding her that their parents like her better (in typical Melissa fashion). The next chapter continues right after this one; sorry this wasn't as exciting as the last few, but the next one will (hopefully) deliver!


	21. Chapter 21

Here's the next chapter, as promised. Enjoy! Same disclaimers!

* * *

Alison stood in the Slytherin girls' dormitory, staring out at the murky lake and contemplating Spencer's last words. "_Maybe we will."_ Was that a threat?

_No_, she assured herself. _She wouldn't leave me. She's always like that, always getting in the last word. But she'd never leave. I just know it._

_But look at Hanna_, a little voice in her head pointed out. _You thought you had her wrapped around your finger, and look where that got you_.

"No, you're right," Alison said aloud. "Anything's possible. I've got to try harder."

"Talking to yourself, Dilaurentis?" a green-eyed brunette smirked from the doorway.

"Marshall," Alison answered stiffly.

"Who got you those?"

"What?"

"Those," Jenna pointed to not one but _two_ boxes of chocolates sitting at the foot of her bed.

_What on earth_, thought the blonde Slytherin princess.

"Did you poison them?" she narrowed her eyes at Jenna.

"Please," Jenna rolled her eyes. "If I wanted to kill you, I'd be _much_ more creative."

"Are you trying to scare me, _Jenna_?"

"Is it working, _Alison_?"

"No," Alison smirked. "I just love watching you try."

"You think you can make people bend to you," Jenna shook her head. "Use them to suit your _desires_. But you'll meet your match one day, Dilaurentis, and with it will come your end. It'll all boil down to a _big show_. And I'll be there. Front row, too." She walked toward the blonde in a snake-like manner until her face was merely half a foot from there. "It better be good. Wouldn't want to have wasted my precious Galleons, now, would I?"

And with another sinister smile, Jenna Marshall vanished as quickly as she came.

* * *

"Well," she sat up, pleasantly surprised to find two more boxes of my favorite chocolate boxes. "Somebody knows how to get to me. I suppose I should thank them."

She got up and skipped toward the Prefect dormitory of Ian Thomas. It felt nice going to his room again; ever since the incident with Melissa, both he and Melissa had had their eyes on her, so she'd had to be extra careful. Their interactions had, sadly, been limited to communal ones in the common room whenever he and Melissa had announcements for the rest of the house.

"What are you doing here?" To her dismay, Jason had answered the door instead of Ian.

"Where's Ian?" she demanded.

"Out somewhere with Melissa," Jason answered curtly. "Now get out of here before I tell him you came by again."

"Fine," she said stiffly. "Tell him thanks for the chocolates."

"Chocolates?" her brother raised her eyebrows. "He gave you _chocolates_?"

"Jealous?" Alison smirked, showing off her raspberry truffles.

"Those aren't from him," he shook his head.

"How would _you_ know that?" she narrowed her eyes up at him.

"You can only get those from Hogsmeade, and trips have been cancelled indefinitely because of all the attacks," he replied. "He can't have gotten those for you. Not to mention Melissa would kick his arse."

"Whatever. Some brother _you _are, anyway." With a swish of her hair, she was gone.

_Oh well, who am I kidding?_ She shook her head with a small, one-sided grin_. He can do _so _much better than this_. _I was going to share these with him, but since he's off being controlled by _her_, more chocolates for me! _She giggled as she ripped off the protective seal, ready to much on her favorite treats.

But what Alison Dilaurentis didn't expect was a clean, rectangular envelope with her name written in magenta on the front.

"I see you're stepping it up. Thank you for leaving a card this time."

She tossed it off to one side before popping a small truffle in her mouth.

"Oh my gosh, are those Honeydukes' World-Famous Chocolate Raspberry Truffles?"

Alison jumped at Mona Vanderwall abruptly interrupting her inner thoughts. "Mona," she growled under her breath.

"Can I have one?" she asked, the same wide, too-big-for-her-face grin plastered on her face.

"If I give you one, will you bugger off?" Alison looked at her exasperatedly, not willing to deal with the annoying girl's antics.

Mona gave a cheeky smile as she slowly devoured the truffle Alison gave her.

"So who gave them to you?" she continued. "These are really expensive, you know."

"How would you know?" Alison eyed her suspiciously.

"Who _hasn't_ heard of them?" she giggled. "There was a special about them in the _Daily Prophet _the other day!"

The blonde girl shrugged as she placed the two boxes neatly on top of her trunk, making room for herself on her bed.

"Oh, Alison?" Mona's head popped in through the door.

"_What_, Mona?"

"I think you dropped this," she handed her the envelope that Alison had so carelessly dropped before Mona came in. "Maybe it came with the boxes?"

"Yes, Mona. Just put it on the table and get out already," snapped Alison, but by the time she looked up, she was gone. _What a freak_.

No matter how hard Alison tried to get back to her strategizing and contemplating about Spencer, Aria, and Emily, she found it impossible to do so with the meticulously clean white envelope glaring at her from her bedside table.

"_Open meeeee_."

The thirteen-year-old blonde jumped. "Who…who's there?"

"_Alison Dilaurentisss_," the envelope continued.

"Show yourself," she breathed.

"_Alison_…"

"Show yourself _now_!" she demanded.

_Silence_.

"I'm going insane," Alison shook her head. "I have to be, if I'm hearing _voices_."

"_Down here_."

Her green eyes automatically went to the envelope as she slowly reached for the envelope once and for all.

"_Open_…_now_…"

With a single swift motion, she broke the seal, and as she did so, a foamy sea green gas evaporated in the air.

"This isn't bonkers at all," she muttered angrily. _What was _so important_ that a stupid enchanted envelope had to talk to me _inside my head, _make me go _crazy…_?_

Alison's face turned stark white as her eyes skimmed across the message.

_Secrets don't stay hidden forever, sweetie. I'm watching, and I see everything_.

* * *

Uh-oh, is this the beginning of "A"? And I know I said this was a prequel story, before Ali's death, but I was greatly inspired by the Halloween episode of Pretty Little Liars in terms of the tone, and I thought it was a good transition, especially since this story is slowly coming to an end. But don't worry, there will be a sequel, and much more to come! And about the voices Ali heard, if you're curious as to what it sounded like, I pictured the voices Harry heard before he learned he could understand and speak Parseltongue. On another note, this was Jenna's first legit interaction with Ali, other than just taunting people with Mona and Pansy, and I hoped you liked it! For me, she's just that bitch you love to hate! Ali's interactions with her and Mona are so different, yet so similarly creepy, and I wanted to show that.

Did I deliver with this chapter like I promised? I hope I did. Reviews and thoughts are appreciated! If you have any questions, post them in a review or send me a message! I love you all!


	22. Chapter 22

**Thank you to everyone who's been following the story! I hope you're all enjoying it as much as I have enjoyed writing it. Heads up for you all, this is a long chapter that will feature all five girls in person (not just mentions)! Like I said before, the story is unfortunately coming to an end soon, but a sequel ****_is_**** in the works! I've already started coming up with plotlines! I'm itching to write it, actually, so you might see me updating quicker than usual. Enjoy! Same disclaimers as always!**

* * *

"Spence! _Spence_!" Alison nearly crashed into Spencer and Aria the following day.

"Hi, Ali," Aria waved to remind the blonde she was there too.

"Oh, hi Aria," she breathed, before turning back to the taller girl. "Have you been to Hogsmeade recently?"

"No," Spencer shook her head, furrowing her eyebrows. "It's been closed since February. Besides, only third years and above are allowed to go, and that's not even every weekend. Why?"

"Oh, just wondering," she lied with a wave of her hand. "I heard some people still managed to go, that's all." She debated telling them about her anonymous gifts, the last of which came with a mysterious note, which had been signed by merely a single letter, A. But she also figured that whoever sent it would target them as well, so she decided to keep mum.

"Like who?" Spencer was curious as Aria pretended to know what they were talking about.

"You wouldn't know them," Alison smoothly lied again, although she didn't actually know who it was herself. With Hanna gone and Emily having "moved on," she couldn't risk losing anyone else. The least she could do with the remaining two was protect them from whoever was out to get her.

"Okay," Spencer shrugged. "I have to go study, but I'll talk to you later, okay?"

"Wait!" she called out to them.

The two brunettes turned to her questioningly.

"Listen," she sighed. "I know I haven't been the best friend to you guys lately. I can't believe that it took two of you leaving me for me to realize that. And I know we're not as close as we were last year, but I have a favor to ask you. All of you."

"Even Hanna and Emily?" Aria raised her eyebrows in surprise. Alison had been a mess since Emily left; she had no longer had anybody to give her undying attention, she didn't have Hanna to pick on for their body type, and she certainly couldn't get either of those from the remaining two.

"Yes," she said after some speculation, "even them. I'll talk to them later. Anyway, my parents are having a graduation party this summer for Jason, and all his stupid friends are going to be there. They hate me," she added.

"So you're inviting us," Spencer beat her to the punch.

"Yeah," she nodded. "I am."

Spencer and Aria exchanged questioning, hesitant glances in a telepathic conversation.

_Do you want to go? She actually seems oddly sincere,_ Spencer asked.

_If you do, then yes_, her friend replied. _Otherwise, I don't know…_

_Well maybe Hanna or Emily will go too_, the youngest Hastings said thoughtfully.

_After what Ali's done to them? I doubt it_, Aria disagreed.

_I feel bad saying no, though_, Spencer said after some thought.

_But_ _what if Melissa's there? And Ian?_ Aria reminded her. _Awkward, much?_

_ Damn, I forgot about them,_ groaned Spencer.

"Well?" Alison looked at her companions expectantly.

"Will my sister be there?" Spencer asked. _And Ian_, she wanted to add.

"Doesn't she go wherever her precious Ian goes?" the blonde Slytherin spat bitterly.

"Oh. Right. Well, I suppose we could. But I'm coming with Aria, not my sister," she added.

"Thank you so much," she threw her arms around them both. "You're _lifesavers_." Alison Dilaurentis smiled in glee. Maybe there _was_ hope after all. Now she just needed the other two.

* * *

"Hey, Emily. Could I talk to you for a minute?"

Emily turned and looked up, surprised to see her ex-girlfriend in front of her since Alison hadn't bothered trying to get her back after she left.

"Sure," Emily shrugged nonchalantly, trying to bury her hurt feelings to listen.

"I know what I did was awful, leading you on like that," Alison said in a, surprisingly to Emily, genuine tone.

"It took you that long to realize that?" the dark-haired girl did her best not to cry. Those days were over; she had moved on. "We haven't talked in a _month_, Ali. And you had plenty of opportunities. I was done. And I still am."

"I'm not here to get you back, Em," she shook her head sadly. "Though there was never really an 'us' to begin with."

Emily's heart stopped. _There was never really an 'us' to begin with_. Ali's words burned through her, ripping her heart apart in all directions. _That wretched girl, how could she do that to me? How could she lead me on for so long, only to tell me now that it was all a lie? And tell me after a month of not speaking at that!_

"I know," Alison read her mind, much to her dismay. "I honestly thought there was an 'us', too. But once I came to terms with myself, I saw just how wrong I was."

"Why are you _really _here?" Emily stopped her, sparing herself the extra details.

"My brother Jason's graduating this year, and my parents are throwing him a party to celebrate," she explained. "All his stupid, annoying, obnoxious friends are going to be there, drunk off their arses on firewhiskey and having contests to see who can come up with the best drunken pick-up line."

"Oh. I'm sorry to hear that."

"I was hoping you would come," added Ali. "I could use some company, you know."

"Don't you have Aria and Spencer?" Emily pointed out, not convinced by her reasoning.

"They're coming," she replied with a bob of her head.

"Are you inviting Hanna, too?"

"Yes," another nod. "I don't know if she'd come after everything that's happened, but it can't hurt, right?"

Emily shrugged noncommittally. "Whatever happened between you two really damaged her."

"I meant well, you know," Alison sighed. "I only wanted to help her. But I suppose I went too far."

"I wouldn't know."

"Do you think she'll forgive me?"

"I don't know the whole story," Emily replied, taking neither side. "That's between you and her. Hanna is one of the sweetest, kindest girls I've ever met."

Alison raised her eyebrows. "What about me?"

"We've been through this, Ali," she said, shrugging off the subject as fast as she could. "But whatever you do, treat her like a real friend this time around. Don't expect her to forgive you so easily, but if you actually treat her the way she deserves to be treated, she'll come around."

"Thanks," Ali smiled. "I know I can always count on you to know what to say."

* * *

Last, but not least, was Hanna. Alison knew it wouldn't be easy getting to her. After making her feel even more terrible about herself than she did in her Hefty Hanna days, Alison was 99.9 percent sure Hanna wouldn't forgive her. But that other one-hundredth of a percent still gave her hope; she just hoped it was enough.

When she saw Hanna for the first time since the incident, as she liked to call it, her heart crumbled. Hanna was happy as can be, laughing with the blonde pig-tailed girl and the redhead. She was clearly happier than she was during her friendship days when she hadn't bullied her into throwing up all those times. But like she had told Emily a few moments prior, she really did go too far, and she was going to make things right. Right enough for Hanna to come, anyway.

_That friend of hers would look _so_ much better without those silly pigtails,_ thought Alison as she smirked to herself. _She's beautiful, just like Hanna_. But who was she to say? If she was truly to learn her lesson before it was too late, now would be a good place to start.

"Hanna," she said in the kindest tone she could muster. "Could we talk?"

Hanna turned to her companions. "Go ahead, I'll be there in a second."

"Are you sure?" the redhead named Susan Bones replied.

"Yeah," Hanna responded steadily. "I'll be alright."

Alison waved to Hanna's friends as they walked off to the Great Hall for dinner, and they waved back with slightly dazed faces. She didn't blame them; she was sure Hanna had told them all about her, and she hated to admit it, but whatever Hanna told them was probably true.

"What was that for?" Hanna demanded.

"Am I not allowed to be nice?" Alison raised her eyebrows.

"You're only this nice when you want something, and we both know it. What do you want, Ali?" she said. "We're still not friends, you know."

"I know," Alison nodded. "I've accepted that a long time ago."

"Really?" the Hufflepuff said stiffly.

"I have," she said honestly. "Look, I know I said some things to you that day you so bravely stood up to me and came into your own. Now that I look back, I'm actually proud of you for doing that."

"Complimenting your way won't make us friends again just like that," Hanna crossed her arms.

"I know you're still angry, Hanna," Alison said gently, which was probably the gentlest she'd ever been with Hanna. "I don't blame you. But I meant well, you know."

"I'm supposed to believe that?" Hanna said, tears forming in her eyes. "You made me throw up in an abandoned loo to make myself lose weight! How in Helga Hufflepuff's name did you _mean well_?"

"All I wanted for you was to grow into the confident person you are right now," she justified. "Confidence is like gravity, Hanna. All you needed was a little _push_."

"You're _disgusting_," she said.

"But you have to admit that it worked," Alison raised her eyebrows. "Look at you now, standing up for yourself and not letting people fight for you."

"I get it, Ali, I really do," Hanna nodded impatiently. "What did you want to talk to me about to begin with?"

"Aren't Hufflepuffs supposed to be patient, Hanna?" she laughed. "Anyway, my parents are throwing my brother a graduation party this summer. All his stupid obnoxious friends are going be there, and I could use some…familiarity. I know you're probably still cross with me, but it would be rather nice if you came." Ironically, "old times" for the five of them was no more than a year ago.

Hanna bit her lip in thought. "I…I don't know."

"Please, Hanna?"

"It's just," she continued, "I don't know if I'd be able to handle it."

"Not even for old times' sake?"

"Will the others be there?"

"_Yes_, they will," Alison assured her. "They haven't been able to shut up about you. It's quite annoying, but it's also endearing."

Hanna only gave a small smile in response.

"So is that a yes?"

After a few seconds of internal debate, as well as everybody's past advice coming at her from every which way, she finally made a decision.

"That's a yes."

* * *

**Yay, the group will be back together again! For the time being of the party, anyway. Ali still has A on her tail and is leaving them all in the dark about it as her last favor to them, in a way. By keeping them out of the A-loop, similarly to the way the girls did with their significant others in the show, she is protecting them from anything else A might try. She knows her chances of fully gaining their trust and friendship back are very slim, so you can look at this as her attempt to redeem herself for how she treated them. The other girls are unaware of this at the moment, but I'd say it's an important thing for you guys as readers to remember.**


	23. Chapter 23

**I'm surprised none of you caught a reference to a specific movie toward the end of that last chapter! It's not really relevant to the plot, but you can go back and see if you can spot it if you want. Anyway, I meant it when I said I was on a roll! Here's the last chapter of the story! I was originally going to have two more, but after writing the end of this, I thought this was the right place to end it. Heads up, y'all, you're in for one hell of a roller coaster ride! Happy reading! **

_**Same disclaimers as always.**_

* * *

Alison woke up again later that day to find that she was alone. _Ugh, why did nobody bother to wake me? I'm starving…_

But right after she had smoothed out her skirt and straightened up her tie, she heard it again: those same voices that came with the menacing letter she had so pleasantly received with her favorite chocolate-raspberry truffles.

She looked around the room with a searching eye, scanning it for anything that seemed out of place. She looked back to the letter that "A" had sent. It couldn't be that same one, could it? Ali wasn't about to risk it; she ripped up the letter into eight pieces, but to her surprise, it only reassembled itself a few seconds later.

"What the hell are you playing at?" she demanded at the letter. _Okay, I have officially gone insane. I must be, if I'm talking to a piece of _parchment _for Salazar's sake._

Suddenly, the words on the page changed, her green eyes widening in horror.

_It won't be that easy to get rid of me. _

_–A _

"I am going to find you," growled Alison, " and _murder you_, whoever you are. This isn't funny anymore! And don't think I'm eating more of those truffles of yours. I don't care how much I like them!"

"Alison?"

The blonde tensed up, whirling around with her wand pointed at the intruder. "Oh," she lowered her wand. "It's just you."

"What was all the yelling for?" Pansy asked curiously, looking around the room. "Is anyone else here?"

"You are now," Alison fastened her robe and put her blonde hair up in a half-ponytail. "How long have you been up?"

"About an hour. Everyone's at breakfast already," Pansy said. "Draco not-so-subtly suggested I check on you."

"Nice to know you would've done so otherwise," Alison smirked.

"I knew you would've come eventually," she emphasized the "eventually."

"I was on my way up, now that you mention it," the blonde made her way to the common room to get rid of the note. "I just have to dispose of this."

"What for?"

"Just some stupid git playing a prank," she shrugged her off. "No big deal."

"Some stupid git, as in, those Weasley twins?"

"I'm thinking more along the lines of Crabbe or Goyle," she rolled her eyes with a smile.

"Oh," Pansy snickered at her comment. A split second before Ali threw the note into the Common Room fire, she stole a glance of what was _really _on the parchment and drew a sharp breath. _I should tell her, _she thought frantically. _She has much worse coming to her if she isn't warned._ "Erm, Alison?"

"Yes?"

"What did the piece of parchment say?"

"Does it matter?" she asked impatiently.

_Yes_, Pansy wanted to say,_ I know who sent it_. But instead, she said, "Just wondering."

"Just wondering?" Alison didn't believe her. "I know when somebody's lying."

"Just be careful," was Parkinson's vague reply. She couldn't risk telling her, at least not directly – not with what was at stake for her.

* * *

"Late start, Dilaurentis?" Draco Malfoy asked casually, cutting up his eggs and sausages.

"A bit," she nodded with a yawn as Pansy sat down across from her next to Mona and Jenna. "What time is it?"

"Eight-thirty," he replied. "The mail arrived just before you did. Something came for you, actually."

"Oh?"

Malfoy handed her a piece of rolled up parchment wrapped in a ribbon of the same color her name had been written in the previous one.

Alison tried not to show her fear as she realized what exactly her mail was. "Why don't you open it for me?" she suggested. "I'm a bit hungry at the moment." _This isn't a coincidence at all_.

"_Open…_"

Halfway through her chocolate chip muffin, she heard it again, and she was nearly one hundred percent positive it was that stupid letter again.

"Draco?" Alison was one of the few to call him by his first name.

"What is it?" he asked brusquely.

"Do you hear something?" She tried to keep her voice as calm as possible, but he could tell she wasn't doing a very good job.

"Like what?" he looked at her, bewildered as to why she would be hearing things.

"_Open…"_

"That," Alison whispered.

"Are you _daft_?" he scoffed. "I don't hear anything. Perhaps you're getting delusional."

_It's probably only meant for me_, she realized. Before she could confirm her suspicion, she had to try one more thing.

"Are you going to open my mail, or not?" she demanded.

"Why on _earth _would I open your mail, Dilaurentis?" he demanded back.

"Just do it, alright?"

"You're even worse than Granger," he shook his head.

"How dare you compare me to that stupid Mudblood!" Alison's voice had risen considerably.

"If I open your stupid mail, will you stop ordering me around?"

"Yes!" she sighed exasperatedly.

With a roll of his grey eyes, Malfoy reached for the letter addressed to her, but the closer his hand got to the parchment, the more a burning sensation surged through his hand as though he were trapped in an oven.

"What are you playing at?" he glared at her.

"What?" Alison asked.

"What are you trying to pull, burning my hand with that stupid letter of yours…"

"I really don't know what you're talking about, Draco," she groaned, reaching out to see what was the matter.

"Don't touch it!" Pansy reached over the table to grab her wrist with an unusually serious look in her eyes.

"Why?" she looked at her rival defiantly.

"Just…trust me," she said urgently before turning to Draco. "If she tries to touch it, Bat-Bogey Hex her. Do you understand?"

"Sure…" Malfoy said doubtfully.

"I'll be back," she said, running out of the Great Hall.

"I'm going after her," Alison got up determinedly.

"But what about what she said?" the white-blond haired boy said incredulously.

"I'm not touching it, am I?" she smirked before running after Pansy.

It didn't take her long to trace the pug-faced girl; her footsteps were quite heavy, so it was damn near impossible for her to be stealthy in any way. But years of experience from eavesdropping on her brother Jason and his friends had helped the youngest Dilaurentis master the art of stealth.

She subtly perched herself in a pillar with a dark nook big enough for an average-sized person to hide. With her back against the concrete wall, she relied on her acute hearing to find out what Pansy was up to?"

"You're taking this too far," Ali heard Pansy say. "That was Dark Magic you just did. Did you know that?"

_Dark magic. So that explains those voices_. A hint of fear crept up the five-foot-three girl's spine. If that was dark magic, it could only get much worse from here.

"Of course I did," a sinister voice snickered. "I know magic far beyond your wildest imaginations."

"Why are you still in school, then? And what do you gain from it?" Pansy demanded. "Or to quote _you_, ironically, 'what's the benefit'?"

"I thought you were in on this!" the voice screeched. "Whatever happened to taking her down and ruling the school with nobody in our way?"

Alison froze. She knew that voice. She dealt with that annoying, screeching voice every single day for the past two years. _So she thinks knowing dark magic makes her better and _stronger_ than me? Two can play at that game. Game on, bitch._

"I envy her as much as you do," Pansy argued, "but you're going in a direction that I will _not_ go. She may have done a lot of things, but she's never truly harmed you, and you know it."

"So be it, then," her companion replied venomously. "Go ahead, betray me. _Join her_. But you still belong to me."

And at that moment, Alison's dislike for the girl Pansy conversed with had turned into _pure hatred_. If she was as capable of dark magic as she claimed, she had to be ready. She was sure her face was void of color at that point, but she didn't care. When she was sure the two girls were gone, she discreetly sat atop the nook, pretending to have been sitting there all along before jumping approximately a meter down to the ground, blending in with the rest of the students rushing back to their dormitories to pack their things for the summer.

"Oh my God, Ali, guess what!"

Alison turned to see Spencer Hastings rushed up to her with a wide grin on her face.

"Go away, Spencer," she said in a cold voice.

The taller girl's face fell at her friend's sudden change in attitude. "I guess I'll tell Aria first, then," she muttered turning away in disappointment. She had looked forward to sharing the news of her top-of-the-class marks for the second year in a row and was dismayed that Ali hadn't seemed even half-interested.

"I don't ever want to speak to you again," she continued in her cold tone. "Or _any of _you, for that matter."

"Ali…"

"Go. _NOW_!"She hated being so cold toward Spencer, but eavesdropping on Pansy's conversation led her to the painful realization that if she intended to take down this bitch once and for all, she needed to distance herself from those she was closest to. _In time you'll understand, my darlings_, silent tears streamed down her face.

* * *

She walked through the corridors with her head down, not caring which direction she was going at that point, which was why she found herself on the the ground before a tall man who bore great resemblance to Draco Malfoy, except with longer hair and colder eyes.

"Mister Malfoy," she breathed, smoothing out any dust from her robes.

"Miss Dilaurentis." His tight lips curved upward in a small smile. Anybody who didn't know him well would automatically assume he had something devious in mind, but the Dilaurentises knew that was how he smiled at everyone. And unbeknownst to everybody, Lucius Malfoy was practically a second father to the Dilaurentis children, especially Alison. "How's your father?"

"Fine," she responded casually with a small nod. "I was looking for you, actually."

"I'm flattered," he said coolly. "What can I do for you?"

"Erm, could we go somewhere…private?"

"Very well," he took her into a nearby empty classroom, locked it shut, and soundproofed it with a "_Muffliato._"

"So what was it you wanted?" he asked.

"Before I tell you," she began, "you have to swear to me this stays between us and _only _us. Forever."

"And why exactly would you want to keep whatever this is a secret?"

"It wouldn't be safe," she replied elusively in a similar tone that Pansy had used with her earlier. She looked at him with a steady, determined face. "I want you to formally swear you'll keep your promise."

"You don't mean…?" Lucius could not believe his ears. Was he about to make an Unbreakable Vow with a _thirteen-year-old_?

"Yes, I do," she nodded with utmost certainty.

"Very well," he nodded, "but under the condition you tell me what exactly it is you want."

She took a deep breath. "I want you to teach me dark magic."

* * *

**So that wasn't a shocking turn of events at all! I'm sure you all have a lot of questions after this chapter, and I can't answer anything too specific, but I'll answer what I can. I can tell you what you ****_can _****look forward to in the sequel, though: Jason's graduation party, new characters (Ezra, Maya and Caleb, to name a few), and of course, ****_A_****. On purpose, I was vague on certain things to make for more future revelations, and true to PLL fashion of something always disrupting their plans, Alison is ****_compromised_****. I hope you enjoyed this story as much as I enjoyed writing it! Look for the start of the sequel sometime next week! Thank you so much for all your support! NOTE: As of 8/12, the sequel is officially up! Bring on...The AftermAth.**


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